Michel Fabrizio raced to two fourth places in today’s eight-round World Superbike Championship at Brno in the Czech Republic, defying the pain barrier in both 20-lappers.
The Team Alstare Suzuki rider was suffering from a cyst in between two of his toes in his right foot and was in agony every time he pushed down on his right footpeg. He had a pain-killing injection in between the two races, but was still in some discomfort and could not be as aggressive as he wanted to be in the right-hand corners.
Marco Melandri (Yamaha) and Max Biaggi (Aprilia) shared the victory spoils in front of 65,000 sun-kissed fans: Melandri won the first race with Biaggi second and Carlos Checa (Ducati) third. Then there was a small gap before Fabrizio and Eugene Laverty (Yamaha) in fifth.
Race two featured another Melandri/ Biaggi battle, but this time Biaggi took the win, just two-tenths-of a-second ahead of Melandri. Checa was third again ahead of Fabrizio.
Michel Fabrizio – Race 1: 4th, Race 2: 4th:
“I am happy to get two fourth places today considering all things. I have raced here before with a broken collarbone, but that pain was nothing like my right foot today. Every time I pushed down hard on the right footpeg I was in agony, and, as this circuit is a clockwise one, there are a lot of right turns. I couldn’t push as hard as normal in the right-handers and that prevented me from going any quicker.
“I was happy with my bike set-up and enjoyed the races – apart from the pain of course. I used the same bike and tyres for both races and the only thing we did was a small adjustment to improve the grip. The grip was better in the second race, but once the front three had pulled out a gap, I found it difficult to catch them. But all-in-all, I’m pretty happy with my results today.”
Brno WSB Results:
Race 1: 1 Marco Melandri (ITA-Yamaha), 2 Max Biaggi (ITA-Aprilia), 3 Carlos Checa (ESP-Ducati), 4 Michel Fabrizio (ITA-Alstare Suzuki), 5 Eugene Laverty (GBR-Yamaha), 6 Ayrton Badovini (ITA-BMW).
Race 2: 1 Biaggi, 2 Melandri, 3 Checa, 4 Michel Fabrizio (ITA-Alstare Suzuki), 5 Eugene Laverty (GBR-Yamaha), 6 Ayrton Badovini (ITA-BMW).
WSB Championship Points: 1 Carlos Checa (ESP-Ducati) 277, 2 Max Biaggi (ITA-Aprilia) 238, 3 Marco Melandri (ITA-Yamaha) 220, 4 Eugene Laverty (GBR-Yamaha), 5 Leon Camier (GBR-Aprilia) 134, 6 Leon Haslam (GBR-BMW) 128, 7 Michel Fabrizio (ITA-Alstare Suzuki) 121.
