The fifth round of the World Superbike championship gets underway this weekend at Oschersleben in Germany as Ducati team mates James Toseland and Regis Laconi fight it out at the top.
The fifth round of the World Superbike championship gets underway this weekend at Oschersleben in Germany as Ducati team mates James Toseland and Regis Laconi fight it out at the top.
Of the riders in the field on Sunday, only Toseland has ever scored a victory on a previous visit when riding as a privateer for the Ducati team last year. As a full member of the Ducati factory squad this year, Toseland currently lies in second place on the champion standing.
Just three points ahead of Toseland lies team mate and championship leader Regis Laconi. After a disappointing start to the season, Laconi has found his form and a close fight is expected between the Ducati Fila pair.
While the charismatic Ducati privateer Pierfrancesco Chili was at the top of the championship table ahead of his disappointment at Monza. His double DNF two weeks ago will hopefully be at the back of his mind, knowing he scored a great second place in the first race last year.
Other Ducati privateers Garry McCoy and Noriyuki Haga have already scored a win apiece and with two third places at Monza, McCoy is now just 10 points behind Chili, reported.
Chris Vermeulen of Ten Kate Honda would be hoping to settle the score on Sunday after he was disqualified from his second place finish in the second race at Monza after it was found that his automatic cut-out switch was not working.
The Foggy Petronas team, running the unique three-cylinder Petronas FP-1 machine, came away from Monza with real hopes of another few shots at the podium in the later stages of the year.
Chris Walker and Troy Corser of the Foggy Petronas team have both taken podiums in the championship so far. Despite a new engine team responsible for the development and maintenance of the three-cylinder engines, the team has acknowledged that the twins and bigger fours may have the edge on corner exiting at the twisty track.
In the World Supersport championship, reigning champions Ten Kate Honda appear to be in good form with Karl Muggeridge – taking his second victory of the season – and Broc Parkes both on the podium at Monza.
Nevertheless, Yamaha Italia’s Jurgen van den Goorbergh still leads the title chase, while his fellow R6 rider Kevin Curtain has shown it’s not going to be a two-rider fight for the title.
In amongst a strong line up of Honda and Yamaha teams is the three-man Alstare Suzuki effort, currently headed by fourth placed Katsuaki Fujiwara while Breil Ducati’s Lorenzo Lanzi fills sixth place overall, but is still looking for his first podium finish.
