Courtesy of Aprilia

The Aprilia Alitalia Racing team takes advantage of the first day of practice on the Misano track to gain familiarity. Max Biaggi and Leon Camier are confident for the weekend.

In the second Italian World Superbike round the Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team wants to do well for the hundreds of fans who have turned out for the occasion. The tests on Friday, as usual, are dedicated to the search for the best feeling with the track without any particular attention given to the stopwatch. Nonetheless, both Max Biaggi and Leon Camier made respectable times on a track which last year turned out not to be very favourable for the characteristics of the Aprilia RSV4. The "Corsair" placed sixth with a time of 1'36.793, while Leon Camier ended the second session in ninth place at 1'37.048.

"It was a rather intense Friday" Max Biaggi commented. "We are trying different solutions on both bikes. We are doing this because we think that there is room for improvement. Unfortunately, because of the dirty track today, we found conditions which were quite different than those we had in our tests last week. Grip was often a problem and only in the end, after our tests and the tests of other categories, were we able to get close to test times. Standings are quite tight, anyway, with the first ten all within less than a second of one another. We still have some things to work out and then it will be a matter of putting together all of our impressions and making sure we're ready for the superpole session".

"I am decidedly pleased with how this Friday of tests has gone, especially if we consider how it started out" - comments Leon Camier, - "This morning the track conditions weren't perfect and we lost a bit of time testing some modifications to the setup which turned out to be counterproductive. In the afternoon we wisely backtracked, following the indications from the tests we did here last week and things got significantly better. The track, looking at the results from last year, isn't exactly ideal for our bike, but the work we are doing makes me optimistic for tomorrow and Sunday. Every Italian race is particularly heartfelt by the Aprilia team, the fans and the sponsor. A lot of people have come out to watch us so I hope that I can do well for them".

Max Biaggi takes a spot on the front row and rides his Aprilia RSV4 to the second block on the grid at the Misano track.

Superpole Saturday ended with an exploit from Max Biaggi for the Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team. With one last explosive lap the multiple world champion rode his RSV4 to the front row, just behind "specialist" Troy Corser's BMW. Max came into the decisive Superpole round, passing the first two sessions without any trouble and staying firmly among the top riders. In the third and last round, Biaggi landed the decisive blow stopping the clock at 1'35.502.

An unfortunate Superpole on the other hand for Brit Leon Camier who was not able to pass the second session after having made it into the top sixteenth with the seventh time. Leon will start from the fourth row (1'36.245 ), for him there is plenty of time to recover tomorrow during two races which promise to be truly heated, especially to the joy of the fans that fill the Aprilia stand which has been created for the occasion.

"I'm very satisfied with this result which, to be quite honest, I didn't even really expect". Max Biaggi commented - "This is a track where it is very difficult to overtake, so starting up front was important. I'm quite pleased.  In the last lap I gave it my all and was very quick, but what counts now is being strong for the entire race. There are a lot of riders here, not only Troy, who are capable of making very fast laps and they showed that today as well, so we'll have to try to stick close to the leaders. Everything is still not sorted with the bike, which is suffering from a bit of instability, but for now this is the best possible compromise. Now we'll just have to give our all in the race without making too many calculations, but just trying to obtain the best result".

"Nothing went right today" - was the comment from Leon Camier - "I wasn't able to ride a clean lap without mistakes. I'm sure I can do better. Fourteenth place does not represent our potential. I tried to be more aggressive but on this track maybe that's not the best choice. For tomorrow I won't jump to conclusions. We know we can ride two good races if we get a good start. Sure, starting from the fourth row isn't the ideal situation, but I'll truly give it my best".

Max Biaggi wins Race 1 at Misano. Third consecutive victory for the Aprilia Alitalia Racing colours bearer. Hold on first place in the world standings strengthened.

Max Biaggi asserts himself in race 1 of the eighth World SBK round. On the Misano track the four time world champion and current leader in the world rankings led Carlos Checa (Ducati) and Troy Corser (BMW) to the end of an extremely close race with minimum gaps between the leaders. After a long period trailing Corser who jumped to the lead at the start, Biaggi unleashed the decisive attack seven laps from the end to stay in the lead, denying the final attacks from Checa, who in the meantime had moved into second place.
With this victory, the third consecutive win following the dominating double win in the USA race, Biaggi strengthens his hold on first place in the world rankings earning seventeen points over his immediate pursuer, Leon Haslam on Suzuki, who came in eighth today. Now Biaggi leads the world championship with 32 points over the Englishman and 121 over Spaniard Carlos Checa.
With the RSV4 victory on the Misano track Aprilia strengthens its hold on first place in the manufacturer rankings (288 points) ahead of Suzuki (263) and Ducati (234). A nice race for Leon Camier as well; the team Aprilia Englishman rode his RSV4 to sixth place.

"I'm obviously happy with this victory" stated Max Biaggi straight off "Especially because I didn't expect it and because doing so well in Italy, in front of our supporters has a very special flavour for us. The conditions are difficult because of the lack of grip. Already after five or six laps I started to "drift". After overtaking Troy I tried to push as hard as possible because I saw that the times were still high, but I couldn't shake him or Checa because the risk for mistakes was too high. I must congratulate the team and Aprilia because we are really working well".

Another double win! Max Biaggi dominates again in Race 2 at Misano. Eighth victory for Max. Fourth consecutive triumph and fourth double victory in eight rounds. Max strengthens his hold on the championship rankings (+37 points in front of the second place ranking). Aprilia first in manufacturer rankings (+30).

Max Biaggi triumphs again in race 2 and takes home his eighth victory of the season. This is the fourth consecutive affirmation for the four-time world champion on the heels of the double victory in the United States round. Max is the leader now more than ever in the world championship rankings and has now widened the gap over second place Leon Haslam, on Suzuki, to 37 points (307 vs 270). There was a 15 point gap before this triumphant Romagna weekend.
The second race was a test of strength for Biaggi who, drawn into the brawl which broke out at the beginning of the race, found himself in fourth place trailing Corser (BMW), Checa (Ducati) and Fabrizio (Ducati). On the fifth lap he began an unstoppable progression which, with spectacular passes to the damage of the riders ahead of him, brought him to the lead in the ninth lap. From then on Biaggi masterfully handled his Aprilia RSV4, increasing the gap more and more until finally, two laps from the end, he was almost eight seconds ahead of the second place rider who at that point was Leon Haslam. Max ended the race easily in control with more than four seconds of gap.
With this result Aprilia strengthens its hold on the manufacturer first place ranking and has a 313 point advantage over the closest pursuers: Suzuki (283) and Ducati (250).
A bitter-sweet weekend for Leon Camier, reigning British Superbike champion who, after a nice ride which took him to sixth place in race 1, suffered in the second race, also slowed by mechanical problems with the bike, and ended in eleventh place.

"In such a tough and well balanced championship – Max Biaggi commented right after the race – all of the victories are earned with hard work and sweat. In race 2, to be honest, maybe I rode... pushing the envelope a bit, maybe even risking too much. But on the other hand, without risk there is no gain! This race represents a crucial moment for us and for our season we are coming out with our heads held high. As always I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart: from the guys on the team to our supporters. Victories like this never happen by chance and these ones in particular are well deserved by a large family which works together toward a common goal"

Leon Camier: "A shame about the problems we had in race 2. I probably stressed the clutch too much at the start so I had output problems for the entire race.
I pressed forward battling for the whole race with poor power management. In those conditions I just kept losing time. Really a shame because in race 1, which I was very happy with, I had a good result and demonstrated that in spite of the difficulties during the tests we were able to do a good job. OK... now we'll go to Brno hoping to learn from our team's experience on that track".

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