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Monday, 30th June 2008
Max Neukirchner fights off the might of Ducati and Yamaha to take his second win of the season at Misano.
Max Neukirchner has moved up to second in the World Superbike standings after scoring a surprise second career victory at Misano.
Having qualified down in tenth place, Neukirchner had merely hoped to make some inroads on the dominance shown by Ducati and Troy Corser's Yamaha in qualifying, but made the most of a good start to find himself in the right place at the right time when the leaders began feuding amongst themselves.
Still, Neukirchner's performance will go down as more than opportunistic, the young German picking off his rivals methodically to assume the lead of the race on lap 17 and romp home for a convincing, if somewhat surprising, victory.
Indeed, given the circuit's reputation for favouring the ‘torquey' Ducati, Neukirchner was delighted to top the podium for the second time this season on the Alstare Suzuki.
"I am very happy to win my second race and the feeling was very good - especially as I had started from the third row of the grid,” he said. “I was patient and just worked my way up through the field and once I was in front, I knew I could win.”
Neukirchner was not so happy with his result in a less frantic second race after being unable to make such significant progress up the order, despite not having changed the bike from the first race.
“We didn't change anything for race two, so I am a bit surprised why I couldn't do as well. The tyre was the same, but it didn't work the same way. I didn't make a good start so there was always going to be some work to do, but I was losing time exiting the turns and it was hard to pass some of the other riders.”
Nonetheless, Neukirchner was satisfied to now be classed as Troy Bayliss' chief title rival after leapfrogging Carlos Checa into second in the standings.
“At the end of the day, I am happy because I am second in the championship and not so many points behind the leader."
Now 49 points in arrears of Bayliss, it raises the question of how the championship order would have looked for Neukirchner had he been able to complete his victory back at Valencia...
Max Neukirchner fights off the might of Ducati and Yamaha to take his second win of the season at Misano.
Max Neukirchner has moved up to second in the World Superbike standings after scoring a surprise second career victory at Misano.
Having qualified down in tenth place, Neukirchner had merely hoped to make some inroads on the dominance shown by Ducati and Troy Corser's Yamaha in qualifying, but made the most of a good start to find himself in the right place at the right time when the leaders began feuding amongst themselves.
Still, Neukirchner's performance will go down as more than opportunistic, the young German picking off his rivals methodically to assume the lead of the race on lap 17 and romp home for a convincing, if somewhat surprising, victory.
Indeed, given the circuit's reputation for favouring the ‘torquey' Ducati, Neukirchner was delighted to top the podium for the second time this season on the Alstare Suzuki.
"I am very happy to win my second race and the feeling was very good - especially as I had started from the third row of the grid,” he said. “I was patient and just worked my way up through the field and once I was in front, I knew I could win.”
Neukirchner was not so happy with his result in a less frantic second race after being unable to make such significant progress up the order, despite not having changed the bike from the first race.
“We didn't change anything for race two, so I am a bit surprised why I couldn't do as well. The tyre was the same, but it didn't work the same way. I didn't make a good start so there was always going to be some work to do, but I was losing time exiting the turns and it was hard to pass some of the other riders.”
Nonetheless, Neukirchner was satisfied to now be classed as Troy Bayliss' chief title rival after leapfrogging Carlos Checa into second in the standings.
“At the end of the day, I am happy because I am second in the championship and not so many points behind the leader."
Now 49 points in arrears of Bayliss, it raises the question of how the championship order would have looked for Neukirchner had he been able to complete his victory back at Valencia...
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