WSBK preview: Moscow

History will be made this weekend when the Superbike World Championship makes its first ever visit to Russia, with racing at the all-new and ultra-modern Moscow Raceway at Volokolamsk, 80km west of the Russian capital.

The 3.931km circuit, comprising 10 left-hand turns and seven right, in addition to a 1km long straight, was only officially inaugurated with a car event on July 15, and the World Superbike round will be the first major two-wheel competition at the venue.

As the circuit will be a new frontier for all the riders and official tyre supplier Pirelli, a test day was held on August 22, with Carlos Checa (Ducati) fastest, clocking a final best time of 1 minute 35.891 seconds.

The new circuit proved to be a challenge for all the top riders, with slow and fast corners combined, including a drop downhill and a long straight back uphill into the final corner.

Checa’s mark was enough to keep him ahead of Leon Haslam (BMW) and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki). Marco Melandri (BMW) ran out fourth, only just ahead of the Max Biaggi (Aprilia)

“It is a nice adventure to be here in Russia and it’s a really nice track,” said Checa.

“In some places you can only use about 15 percent of throttle and just keep rolling the bike. We feel quite well today and this is a track where we have been working well in both the morning and the afternoon. We understand the line, the gearbox and the tyres.

“At the end we felt the tyres were working a lot better in the afternoon because probably the asphalt is less aggressive now. We are losing a lot on the straight, which is uphill, so it is not easy to manage that.”

Moscow begins a crucial run home in the championship, where it’s extremely tight affair at the sharp end of proceedings between Biaggi – who has led the opening round since round one at Phillip Island – and Melandri. The gap is now down to 10.5pts with four rounds remaining.

Like many riders in the WSBK title, Melandri has never visited the world’s largest country till this week.

“The test was not too bad. The track is pretty fun to ride but I think it is quite small for Superbikes,” said Melandri.

“The turns are very tight and so far I don’t think that there are many chances for overtaking in the middle of the track but we will see. The track is going to be faster day by day.

“Today we worked on the gearbox to try to find a good setting to make the bike smoother in the corners. On the long straight we can make use of the power of our BMW engine and gain a lot of time, but we are losing time in the corners.

“We now have to analyse what we did today and try to improve for Friday morning. Ducati seems to be strong here and for us it will not be easy but will do our best and we will see on Sunday.”

Melandri has won five races so far in 2012, followed by Biaggi and reigning world champion Checa on four.

Checa, along with Sykes and Honda’s Jonathan Rea, are all still in with a chance of winning the championship, but they’ll all need to fire in Russia to retain that optimism.

Sykes certainly gives himself the best chance of circulating at the front with his sparkling qualifying performances, while Checa refuses to wave the white flag as well.
Other top runners in Moscow will include Haslam, Eugene Laverty (Aprilia), Loris Baz (Kawasaki), Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati) and Suzuki pairing Leon Camier and John Hopkins. Baz and Guintoli shared race wins at Silverstone – the first win for Baz in WSBK competition.

WORLD SUPERSPORT
The World Supersport riders will also have to come to grips with the new circuit, and if Aussie Broc Parkes (Honda) can acclimatise quicker than the rest a first win of the season may be on the cards.

Parkes is currently fifth in the standings on 98pts behind Kawasaki’s Kenan Sofuoglu (148), Honda duo Sam Lowes (134) and Jules Cluzel (120), and Fabien Foret (Kawasaki, 118).

Parkes was third fastest in the August 22 familiarisation session, behind Lowes and Cluzel, while Australia’s second rider Jed Metcher (Yamaha) was 16th.

Moscow will also be an extra special round for Metcher, who rides for a Russian-backed team.

There will be live coverage from Moscow on SPEED at 5.30pm on August 26.

CURRENT WORLD SUPERBIKE STANDINGS (AFTER 10 OF 14 ROUNDS):
1 Max Biaggi, Italy, Aprilia 274
2 Marco Melandri, Italy, BMW 263.5
3 Tom Sykes, Great Britain, Kawasaki 222.5
4 Carlos Checa, Spain, Ducati 220.5
5 Jonathan Rea, Great Britain, Honda 203.5
6 Leon Haslam, Great Britain, BMW 170
7 Eugene Laverty, Great Britain, Aprilia 160.5
8 Sylvain Guintoli, France, Ducati 122.5
9 Michel Fabrizio, Italy, BMW 108.5
10 Davide Giugliano, Italy, Ducati 106