Althea Ducati's Carlos Checa has cruised to another World Superbike win in the first race at Misano this morning in a race which saw BMW's Leon Haslam suffer a heavy crash as his S1000RR highsided him off on lap nine but he escaped with hand and arse injuries, and is expected to take the grid in race two.
Checa, as has been the case for most of the season, was unstoppable once he passed Alitalia Aprilia's Max Biaggi with 13 laps to go, controlling the pace at the front. And what pace it was as former MotoGP runner up Marco Melandri was a full 17 seconds further back in third.
Poleman Tom Sykes managed to grab the holeshot on his PBM Kawasaki with Haslam, Checa, Biaggi and Troy Corser in close attendance but it didn't take Haslam long to hit the front at Quierca while Biaggi also sliced past Sykes on lap one for second.
Biaggi took just a lap to pass the works BMW man at Tremonto as Eugene Laverty began to carve through the field, getting into sixth on the third lap as Biaggi pulled a lead of half a second while Checa struggled to pass Haslam.
However, the Spaniard only waited for one more lap to bag second as Laverty and Sykes swapped paint for fifth behind Melandri. With 18 laps to go, the Irishman made a pass stick on the Huddersfield man and then set off after his team-mate.
Checa cut the gap to Biaggi at an average of two tenths per lap as the second RSV4 which houses Leon Camier found some space to make time and he occupied eighth place which turned into seventh when Haslam went down.
Biaggi could only hold off Checa for so long and the Spaniard made the pass with 13 to go and promptly put a gap on the reigning WSB champion. There were gaps right down the field but as the race drew to a close, Sykes caught a fading Laverty and mugged him on the last lap for fourth place.
Camier finished in a lonely sixth with former BSB man Sylvain Guintoli in seventh, Ayrton Badovini eighth, Joan Lascorz ninth and Maxime Berger in tenth. Jonathan Rea did not start as he suffered a big accident in morning warm-up and has broken his right wrist.
