WSBK returns to Spain for the 25th consecutive year

MotorLand Aragon to host the second round of the season.
Phillip Island videos (WSBK)Whilst the Superbike World Championship had its first race weekend ever on April 3rd 1988 at Donington Park, Spanish fans had to wait only two years to finally get to see their favourite riders live. Since then, there has been at least one round per year on Spanish soil. Here is a brief history of the World Superbike Championship in Spain.

Circuito de Jerez (Cádiz) 1990/ 2013 
The first and last Spanish rounds so far were held in Jerez. In 1990 the reigning Champion was Fred Merkel, riding a Honda VFR 750 R (RC 30), but it was Raymond Roche to take the double at the Andalucian track. The Frenchman scored two of his eight race wins of the season there that along with 17 podium finishes, allowed Roche to take the ultimate prize and to give Ducati their first title. After more than 20 years of absence, it was Ireland's Eugene Laverty to cross the line twice as the race winner, whilst Toni Elias was the best placed Spanish rider (4th in Race 2). Tom Sykes was crowned Champion, with Kawasaki on top of the world for the first time since 1993.

 Circuito del Jarama (Madrid) 1991-1992 
After only one year at Jerez, the Superbike World Championship moved to Jarama in 1991. The local riders at that time were Juan López Mella (Honda) e Dani Amatriain (Honda), but top honours went to Doug Polen (Ducati), who made a clean sweep on the way to an impressive record of 17 race wins, 21 podium finishes, 10 pole positions and 13 fastest laps. The following year saw Phillis and Polen share wins in the so called Andorran round, with American Polen successfully defending his title aboard the Ducati 888 of Team Fast by Ferracci.

 Circuito de Albacete 1992-1999 
From 1992 to 1999 the Spanish action of the Superbike World Championship took place at Albacete. In 1992 Kiwi Aaron Slight (Honda) and Frenchman Raymond Roche (Ducati) scored one win each, whilst in the following one Carl Fogarty (Ducati) was the only rider on the top step of the podium, despite the title going in the end to Scott Russell. The American won 5 races and scored 17 podium finishes aboard his Kawasaki ZXR 750 R. Same story on 1994 and 1995, as Fogarty was almost uncatchable at Albacete, but also consistent enough to be crowned World Superbike champion in both years. In 1996 Ducati was again absolute protagonist as Troy Corser scored the double at Albacete and took top honours at the end of the season (the only Spanish rider in the points was Gregorio Lavilla, 11th and 12th in the two races). Another double again in 1997, this time secured by former 250 World Championship John Kocinski (Honda). The Japanese manufacturer was awarded with the first WSBK at the end of the year, with Kocinski the first rider to become champion in both Grand Prix and World Superbike series. In 1998 former 250cc and 500cc World Championship rider Pierfrancesco Chili (Ducati) won the first race (Lavilla was again the best placed Spaniard with a third place) for a double win secured by Ducati thanks to Fogarty's win in Race 2. The Briton was crowned champion for the third time at the end of the season. Albacete hosted a WSBK round once more in 1999, with Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) and Colin Edwards (Honda) who shared wins as Fogarty was dominant once again for the whole season.

Circuito Ricardo Tormo (Valencia) 2000-2010 
In 2000 the World Superbike debuted at Valencia for the first of 11 overall rounds held there. Colin Edwards won the first title of the new millenium aboard the Honda VTR 1000SP-W), but within Spanish borders Troy Corser (Aprilia) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) took the honours. Corser did even better in 2001 by winning both races (Spain's Lavilla was third in Race 2 aboard a Kawasaki), even though the title went to another Australian, Troy Bayliss (Ducati), who won 6 races and stepped on the podium
15 times. Bayliss was triumphant at Valencia the following year (2002), despite the title was being clinched by Edwards (Honda) at the end of one of the most thrilling seasons in WSBK.

Another double win in 2006, that time courtesy of title winner Troy Bayliss (Ducati), who scored a total of 12 race wins and 16 podium finishes. In 2007, for the first time ever, a local rider won on Spanish soil: Ruben Xaus crossed the line in first place, followed by Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) and Troy Bayliss (Ducati). Race 2 was won by James Toseland (Honda), who was triumphant at the end of the year. Lorenzo Lanzi and Noriyuki Haga took one win each in 2008 as Bayliss won his third and last title before retiring from racing.

 In 2009 Noriyuki Haga dominated both Spanish races, but ultimately failed to become champion as American Ben Spies edged him out at the very end of the season – for what was Yamaha's first Championship title. Leon Haslam (Suzuki) and Carlos Checa (Ducati) won one race each in 2010 as Aprilia's Max Biaggi secured the title.

 MotorLand Aragón (Teruel) 2011-now 
The MotorLand Aragon has already hosted a WSBK round in the last three seasons. Marco Melandri (Yamaha) and Max Biaggi (Aprilia) took one win each in 2011 as Spaniard Carlos Checa was crowned World Champion for the first time in his career. Same race winners in 2012 with Biaggi winning both Race 1 and the title at the end of the year, whilst Melandri scored BMW's third ever win in the series in the following race. The German manufacturer was an absolute protagonist at MotorLand Aragon last year as well, with Chaz Davies making a clean sweep in great fashion.

 The upcoming weekend will see the eni FIM Superbike World Championship returning at the MotorLand Aragon for the first European round of the season, that will also witness the opening races of the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup, the FIM Europe Superstock 600 Championship and the Pata European Junior Cup.

(WSBK)
 

F1 Bahrain 2014

Race - Hamilton defeats Rosberg in epic desert duel 

Lewis Hamilton beat Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg to victory after an epic race-long battle under the Bahrain floodlights on Sunday, with the pair trading places on numerous occasions and crossing the line just one second apart.

Hamilton's hard fought victory - in what was the 900th Formula One Grand Prix - enabled him to close the gap to Rosberg in the world championship standings by seven points. The German now holds a narrow 11-point advantage in the early stages of the title race. Hamilton had pushed his way into the lead at the start and defended it robustly from Rosberg, and soon the two Silver Arrows had left their opposition for dead. But while Hamilton resisted further attacks from Rosberg at the end of the first stint and then opted for another set of Pirelli’s soft tyres on the 19th lap, Rosberg went for mediums two laps later and planned to do a longer middle stint and to attack again on soft tyres when Hamilton switched to mediums at the end. The difference between the two compounds was surprisingly small, around two-tenths of a second a lap, but by the 40th lap Hamilton had opened a lead of 9.7s when Lotus's Pastor Maldonado drove out of the pits and straight into the side of Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber at Turn 1. The Mexican’s car was spectacularly inverted, and as Gutierrez extracted himself the eventual safety car deployment looked like ruining Hamilton’s race. Maldonado was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty for the incident and a subsequent five-place grid drop for the next race. For five laps the field bunched back together behind Bernd Maylander’s Mercedes safety car, and the vast 45.5s gap to Force India’s Sergio Perez in third place was instantly eradicated. But the real focus was on the upcoming battle between the two Mercedes, with the advantage apparently now Rosberg’s after he had taken another set of softs as planned on the 41st lap. Mercedes chief Paddy Lowe advised both drivers over the radio that there were 10 laps left and reminded them that the team wanted both cars brought home, but they were otherwise left to fight it out. And how they did just that! Several times it seemed that Rosberg had nosed ahead, only for Hamilton to salvage the situation either on the cutback or simply by hanging tough. Rosberg had the gap down to half a second on the 51st and 52nd laps, but all of his attacks were repelled by Hamilton’s spirited yet fair defence, and finally they crossed the line a second apart. The safety car also skewed the race for many other drivers. Sergio Perez had driven a blinder for Force India to outpace team mate Nico Hulkenberg, as they scrapped for much of the race with Williams duo Felipe Massa and Bottas, but the three-stoppers were disadvantaged by the two-stopping Red Bulls which were on softer rubber when it mattered after Vettel opted to start on the mediums. Daniel Ricciardo blew past his team mate after a tremendous tussle, and just failed to grab the final podium slot from Perez. The Mexican crossed the line 0.4s ahead of the Australian to give Force India their first podium finish since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix. Behind them, Vettel was unable to unseat Hulkenberg, and had to settle for sixth as the bright weaving crocodile of cars ran beneath the floodlights. Seventh and eighth places were poor reward for Massa and Bottas, who arguably lost out the most under the safety car and just couldn’t pull in the Red Bulls, while the best that Ferrari could muster was ninth for Fernando Alonso and 10th for Kimi Raikkonen. In his 250th Grand Prix Jenson Button had been in the running for a top six placing, but the safety car hampered him and then his McLaren ran into reliability problems. He was eventually classified 16th despite parking his car in the garage before the chequered flag. Just as the safety car had come out, team mate Kevin Magnussen’s sister MP4-29 had retired with suspected gearbox trouble, so it was a tough day for the Woking team. This time Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat didn’t score a point but he was Toro Rosso’s only finisher in 11th ahead of Romain Grosjean’s Lotus, while Max Chilton’s three-stopping Marussia led home Maldonado’s E22, Kamui Kobayashi’s two-stopping Caterham, and the other Marussia of Jules Bianchi who lost a load of time after being penalised for an earlier collision with Adrian Sutil’s Sauber, which retired as a result. Besides Magnussen, Gutierrez and Sutil, Marcus Ericsson retired his Caterham with mechanical issues and Jean-Eric Vergne suffered from a tyre-destroying collision on the opening lap and retired with associated complications. Rosberg continues to lead the world championship with 61 points, but Hamilton is only 11 points back with 50. Hulkenberg is third with 28 ahead of Alonso on 26 and Vettel on 23. And in the constructors’ stakes Mercedes continue to race away with 111 points from Force India on 44, McLaren on 43, Red Bull on 35, Ferrari on 33 and Williams on 30.( sumber F1 Racing ).