Althea Ducati's Carlos Checa cruised to the first World Superbike race win at the Nurburgring this morning, throttling off on the last lap to cross the line two seconds ahead of Marco Melandri with fan favourite Noriyuki Haga completing the podium.
The win means Checa pulls a further 25 points ahead of title rival Max Biaggi who is not racing due to a broken bone in his foot caused by a flying rock in practice on Friday. The reigning champion tried to put on an oversize boot this morning but was in too much pain to ride..
Biaggi's non-start also means Yamaha's Melandri moves past the Roman Emperor into second place and now had an 11-point lead and this can only get bigger as the works Aprilia rider will not take part in this afternoon's second race either.
Spaniard Checa led from start to finish, pulling away slowly as Haga, Melandri and his team-mate Eugene Laverty scrapped it out for the podium positions. Laverty ran off the track mid-race and dropped a couple of seconds but then Melandri did the same thing at the same corner and the Irishman was back into third.
He couldn't live with the Italian's pace, however,m and had to watch as Melandri and Haga pulled away. BMW's Leon Haslam also had an off-track moment on same lap as Laverty but dropped from fifth to 14th. The Derbyshire scrapper then put in the ride of his season to fight back to fifth, going past Sylvain Guintoli on the last lap to bag the points.
Joan Lascorz mugged the lone Alitalia Aprilia of Leon Camier into the last corner to take seventh. Camier was slightly wide into the final corner and the Spaniard dived up the inside and just won the drag race to the line.
BMW Italia's Ayrton Badovini nipped past the returning Jonathan Rea to take ninth with Tom Sykes, who was running in the top six early on, slipping back to 11th. The Huddersfield man looked to have rear tyre issues from half distance. In-pain James Toseland was the last Brit home in 13th, taking three points from his 200th WSB race.
