World superbike preview: Istanbul

The 2013 eni FIM Superbike World Championship will be racing on September 13-15, for the first time ever, at the Intercity Istanbul Park. Located in the Asian side of the largest city in Turkey, the track is 5.340km long, with eight left-handers, six right turns and runs in anti-clockwise direction.

New leader after the German Round Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) is the only rider in the top five of the standings who hasn't raced before on the Turkish track, meaning he has to fill the gap of knowledge during the weekend, while trying to find the best set-up for his ZX-10R. Main title contender Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team), who is only 1pt behind the Brit, is still recuperating from the shoulder injury that has been bothering him since the second half of July.

Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet) is really looking forward to the 11th round of the season, as the Italian won twice in MotoGP at Intercity Istanbul Park, in 2005 and 2006 (defeating Australia's Casey Stoner in a thriller). Melandri has high expectations for the upcoming event and hopes to narrow the gap on top of the standings. After an impressive performance in Germany, his teammate Chaz Davies aims to keep the momentum going in order to finish the season on a positive note.

Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) was on track early last week at Jerez for a two-day private test to keep developing his factory RSV4. Following the mixed emotions of race day at Nurburgring, the Laverty will be targeting two good race results to regain third place in the standings and keep his title hopes alive, despite the 40pt gap from Sykes.

Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) are speeding up their recovery to be on track next weekend, after the heavy crashes suffered at the Nurburgring nine days ago.

Leon Haslam will be waving the Pata Honda Team flag high as teammate Jonathan Rea will not tackle the event, due to the consequences of the crash in race one at the Ring. He will be replaced by Italian Michel Fabrizio, whose spot in his privateer Red Devils Roma Aprilia team has been taken by 2010 Moto2 world champion Toni Elias.

Carlos Checa and Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) are targeting some encouraging race results that would make up for the difficulties experienced so far this year.