Works Yamaha's Marco Melandri took victory over fellow ex-MotoGP men Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa in the first World Superbike race at Brno this morning but was made to work for it by the Alitalia Aprilia man.
The two Italians fought for the top spot for most of the 20-lapper while Spaniard Checa slowly moved his way up from fourth on the opening lap, passing the second Yamaha of Eugene Laverty, and closing a 1.5s gap to make it a trio at half distance.
Checa didn't stake a claim for the lead however, leaving the paint-swapping to Biaggi and Melandri, whose rear tyre was shot towards the end. Biaggi got away early and held the lead until there were 12 laps to go when Melandri went past.
The Althea Ducati man went into second four laps later when Biaggi made a mistake on the brakes but the Italian used the RSV4's superior power to go straight back past and then, with six to go, slid underneath Melandri into turn three.
Melandri was having none of it and cut back past Biaggi through turn four and they swapped twice at turn five as Biaggi again went wide. The Roman was back in front with four to go as he slid under the R1 at turn one but the lead only lasted a lap as Melandri took back the number one slot with three to go and kept it.
Alstare Suzuki's Michel Fabrizio looked likely to join the trio as the laps clicked down, lapping half a second faster but he ran out of tyre and had to settle for fourth, just ahead of Laverty who had an equally lonely race in fifth.
BMW Italia's Ayrton Badovini fought his way through the pack to take sixth place while Leon Camier eventually won a five-bike scrap for seventh place. The lanky Kent youngster got an awful start from the second row and dropped like a stone but, as usual, came good towards the end with some fast laps.
Leon Haslam, who picked up an arm injury when he was hit by some debris thrown up off the track on Friday, followed Camier home with the Kawasaki pairing of Joan Lascorz and Tom Sykes, who was in sixth early on, rounded out the top ten.
Castrol Honda rookie Alex Lowes scoring his first championship points, coming home in 15th place after a solid ride while team-mate Ruben Xaus took only two laps to highside at the same place he badly broke his leg two years ago...
