Superstock 1000 FIM Cup season review
The season got underway at Assen, not the first European round at Donington, where the finishing order of Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Ducati), Danilo Petrucci (Barni Racing Team Ducati) and Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia Superstock) was an indication of three of the riders who would finish inside the top four by season end.
The fourth rider to show top-level form was Barrier's team-mate, Lorenzo Zanetti, who pitched in with the race win at the ultra-fast Monza, in a red -flagged and restarted race. With Giugliano second in that outing, he was already beginning to make a points lead for himself. Subsequent wins for him at Misano and Aragon just underlined his class and the front running ability of his machine.
At Brno, one round later, Barrier stuck in a win but with Petrucci no-scoring, the net result was an even greater advantage for Giugliano. Nothing in racing is certain for too long, however, and at the very next round it was Giugliano who was out, at Silverstone, opening the door of opportunity to Petrucci, who ran through it at full pace, taking maximum points. ‘Normal' service was resumed in Germany when Giugliano took his fourth and last win of the year, but in terms of victories it was Petrucci all the way for the rest of the year, taking his personal total to four for the season.
In the final analysis, he ended up only two points from Giugliano, 171 to 169 for the Roman rider over his Italian countryman, but only because Giugliano had been given the call-up to ride in the Superbike class at the final round in Portugal, and was unable to add to his final tally.
Zanetti ended the season third in the points on 148, Barrier fourth on 132. Fifth placed Niccolo Canepa (Lazio MotorSport Ducati) took three podiums in a row at one stage, helping him to total of 109 points.
The expected push of the new Kawasaki Ninja came late, with Sheridan Morais (Lorenzini by Leoni Kawasaki) going third in Portugal, but taking an important step for the Japanese manufacturer because this was the only podium scored by a non-European based manufacturer all year. In all seven riders scored podiums, including Michele Magnoni (Baru BMW) with his third at Monza.
A rich year for Superstock racing, a very different one from 2010, and with the expectation that next year there will be even more openness and a wider range of competitors, in terms of both men and machines.
