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A look back at 2010

Thursday, 14 April 2011 17:31 GMT
A look back at 2010
It's the home race for the Ten Kate team and Jonathan Rea chose the right place to score his maiden pole, in front of Jakub Smrz. Troy Corser put the BMW in third and fourth was championship leader Leon Haslam.


At the start of the first race a group of five riders emerged from the pack: Corser, Camier, Rea, Smrz and Toseland; the pace was high and there was no place-swapping, the only relevant fact being a number of mistakes by Haslam, caused by the loss of pressure in the front tyre. The championship leader was down in sixteenth after a handful of laps.


After lap 10, when tyre wear became crucial, some riders tried to make their moves: on the eleventh lap Rea passed Corser for the lead, while behind them Toseland moved from fifth to third in two laps, overtaking Camier, then Smrz. Two more laps and Toseland was in second, passing Corser into the last chicane.


In the last four laps Toseland was able to challenge Rea and on the nineteenth lap he took the lead at the last chicane, but Rea lined him up on the start-finish straight and passed him again into turn one. Camier was right behind and passed Toseland as well, going wide: this duel ultimately favoured Rea, which gained some vital space to win, while Toseland was forced to resist to Camier's assaults.


Corser proved to be the best starter in race two, taking the lead in front of Haslam, Rea and Camier; in the middle of the pack Haga was on the spotlight for going wide and falling in last place. A race to forget for the Japanese, which retired soon afterwards due to technical problems.


The rest of the race was a superbike classic: seven riders were able to fight for the win, passing each other at every corner, so that it was almost impossible to keep track of the position changes.


The candidates for the win were Rea, Corser and Haslam: the challenge became more clear only on the sixteenth lap, when Rea made the decisive move on Haslam at the first turn, pulling away from his rivals.


Rea's pace was irresistible and he kept increasing his advantage lap after lap, so that he was able to win with more than two seconds over Haslam, while behind them the battle for third continued: Camier was able to pass Toseland on the twentieth lap, but on the following one he fell, leaving the lower step of the podium to his countryman, which was able to resist to Biaggi and Corser's assaults.