Tom Sykes wins race 2 and Max Biaggi takes 2012 championship title at Magny Cours

Max Biaggi has won the 2012 World Superbike title by taking fifth in race 2 and by the smallest margin in the history of series, just a 0.5 points margin over an impressive Tom Sykes who took a dominate victory in the final race of the season at Magny-Cours, to end this year’s 25th anniversary of the Superbike championship.

For the sixth time in his long career the 41-year old Roman Emperor took a world title, his second in World Superbikes, even if it wasn’t an easy round for the Aprilia rider, who could have counted on the help of team mate Eugene Laverty - who received team orders - but in the end a 5th place was more than enough after five wins and six podiums during the entire season and give Aprilia also the manufacturers title.

A crash in race 1 didn’t help Biaggi and getting bottled up in a dry race 2 - even if was declared wet - and tentitively riding around in 10th for several laps while Tom Sykes escape seemed to give some hope to the Kawasaki rider, who no doubt will be ruing the half points for his dominant win at Monza and his recent technical problem in race 2at Portimao, as Marco Melandri crashed out heavily during the sixth lap and definitely said good-bye to his title hopes.

Sykes again got the holeshot and lead the race from the lights to the chequered flag, but Eugene Laverty engaged the Grinner almost immediately and the two exchanged positions in the first turns, but Sykes was in the lead at the end of the first lap followed by Laverty, race 1 winner Sylvain Guintoli, Leon Haslam, Jonathan Rea, Marco Melandri, Loris Baz, Davide Giugliano, Carlos Checa and Biaggi. On lap two an agressive Guintoli took over the second spot from Laverty as the race continued for the next five laps without anything changin

On the sixth lap an already injured Melandri crashed out at the Chateaux d’Eau caught out by a damp patch and just seconds later Loris Baz also binned it, which gave Biaggi an extra two spots and the Italian was now in sixth thanks also to an error by Leon Haslam who ran off track favorito dall’errore di Leon Haslam, but then Biaggi committed his own error that let through Davide Giugliano and the Aprilia rider also had to fend off Haslam, as Michel Fabrizio closed out his last race with BMW Motorrad Italia with a crash.

Laverty had a big moment that let Jonath Rea through to take third and he was just 1.5 seconds from Sykes and Guintoli- On the 12th lap Biaggi overtook Giugliano to take sixth and then chased after Checa and two laps later caught the now former World Champion to take the position that would safely give him the championship title, as the Althea Ducati duo could no longer keep up with him. In the front Rea overtook Guintoli for second, Haslam crashed and Sykes crossed over the finish line to win the final battle but lose the 2012 war to Biaggi by just 0.5 points.

WSBK 2012 Championship results:

MAX BIAGGI APRILIA 358
TOM SYKES KAWASAKI 357,5
MARCO MELANDRI BMW 328,5
CARLOS CHECA DUCATI 287,5
JONATHAN REA HONDA 278,5
EUGENE LAVERTY APRILIA 263,5
SYLVAIN GUINTOLI DUCATI 213,5
LEON HASLAM BMW 200
CHAZ DAVIES APRILIA 164,5
DAVIDE GIUGLIANO DUCATI 143

WSBK Magny Cours Race 2 Results:

01- Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – 23 laps in 38’15.725
02- Jonathan Rea – Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 1.354
03- Sylvain Guintoli – PATA Racing Team – Ducati 1198 – + 2.393
04- Eugene Laverty – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 13.122
05- Max Biaggi – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 13.955
06- Davide Giugliano – Althea Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 18.229
07- Carlos Checa – Althea Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 18.430
08- Chaz Davies – ParkinGO MTC Racing – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 26.648
09- Ayrton Badovini – BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet – BMW S1000RR – + 33.809
10- Leon Camier – FIXI Crescent Suzuki – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 37.217

2012 Manufacturers championship results:

1. Aprilia 444,5
2. BMW 421
3. Ducati 416

With  TWOWHEELSBLOG

Sylvain Guintoli wins Race 1 at Magny-Cours and Biaggi crashes!

From TWOWHEELSBLOG

Yesterday we said that only the weather could throw a wrench in the final round of the World Superbike championship and the title fight, and this morning for the first race at Magny-Coursthe track was wet and treacherous and what happened gave new hope to two title rivals.

Just three laps into the race, Max Biaggi who got a good start, was running in fourth suddenly lost the front of his Aprilia at the Adelaide hairpin and crashed out, while rivals Marco Melandri and Tom Sykes cut the Italian’s points advantage after they finished second and third respectively as Sylvain Guintoli took a highly emotional win for Pata Racing (they will not be present next season) in front of his enthusiastic home crowd.

For the third time this season the La Marseillaise was played for the French rider in this drama packed, high attrition race thriller whose final conclusion will now be decided in race 2 with Biaggi still having a 14.5 point advantage over Sykes, while Melandri is 18.5 points adrift, and the Aprilia rider needs just a fifth place finish to win the title.

Tom Sykes took the holeshot followed by Jonathan Rea, Eugene Laverty, Carlos Checa, Melandri and Biaggi and Melandri then lost three spots to find himself down in 8th. At the end of the first lap Sykes was leading as Laverty lost his postion to Biaggi and during the third lap the title championship changed face as Biaggi who was running in fourth crashed out and all of a sudden the race changed pace and the atmosphere became charged as Sykes and Melandri were advised of Biaggi’s crash - while Chaz Davies also binned it.

Sykes was still leading the race, but Jonathan Rea quickly caught the Kawasaki rider and on the fifth lap the Honda rider took the head of the race and began to race away with a series of impressive laps and the only rider to ride under the 1.55 mark to gain a three second margin over the struggling Sykes as Lorenzo Zanetti and Leon Camier would both crash out in the tricky conditions…

The race again changed when Carlos Checa who was closing in on Sykes crashed out during the 7th lap leaving the third spot to a battling Guintoli and Melandri - who previously was able to pass four riders in just one corner. Drama again struck when Rea who had several warning signs from his Honda continued to post fast laps and during the 13th lap binned it and the championship title took on another significance, with Sykes inheriting the lead, Melandri second and Guintoli third with ten laps left to go.

The three riders gave it all they had and risked serveral times, but Guintoli prevailed, as the two title rivals sagely decided to take home some precious points instead of throwing everything away, as the Pata rider raced away gaining a 1.5 second margin in just one lap and the three positions would remain frozen until the chequered flag.

Axed Effenbert Liberty rider Maxime Berger finished fourth in home race for Red Devils Roma team replacing injured Niccolò Canepa and giving the team its best result this season. Leon Haslam was fifth while Ayrton Badovini pipped Eugene Laverty on the final lap for sixth, Davide Giugliano finished 7th after running off track to avoid hitting Leon Camier while Claudio Corti was 9th in his World Superbike debut finishing ahead of Loris Baz who completed the top ten.

With a depleted field due to the treacherous track condtions and after John Hopkins pull-out and Alexander Lundh’s crash that resulted in fractures to his T7 and T8 vertebrae (luckily not suffering any neurological damage), Norino Brignola finished in 11th and Michel Fabrizio was 12th, after returning to track after a technical issue saw him make a pit stop.

WSBK Magny-Cours Race 1 results:

01- Sylvain Guintoli – PATA Racing Team – Ducati 1198 – 23 laps in 44’06.299
02- Marco Melandri – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR – + 6.127
03- Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 16.595
04- Maxime Berger – Red Devils Roma – Ducati 1198 – + 21.857
05- Leon Haslam – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR – + 25.149
06- Ayrton Badovini – BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet – BMW S1000RR – + 32.778
07- Eugene Laverty – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 34.311
08- Davide Giugliano – Althea Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 47.269
09- Claudio Corti – Team Pedercini – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 49.720
10- Loris Baz – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 50.192

WRC - Rallye de France – Sébastien Loeb leader

Another interesting day, Sebastien Loeb maintaining his dominance of both the rally and Championship. Throughout today he has been cool, collected and doing what he does best, leading from the front, demonstrating how you win rallies and Championships. Both Latvala and Solberg faltered early in the day giving the Frenchman clear run.

Going into the overnight, the overall classification is: 1- Sebastien Loeb (Citroen-Michelin) 2- Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford-Michelin) +29.7 3- Mikko Hirvonen (Citroen-Michelin) +54.0 4- Mads Ostberg +1:46.4 5- Dani Sordo (Mini-Michelin) +1:50.5

Solberg's Crash - 2012 WRC Rallye de France

Watch the awesome crash of Petter Solberg on the SS9 of The Rallye de France on onboard camera.
http://www.best-of-rallylive.com