Marco Melandri again made World Superbike Championship history for BMW Motorrad Motorsport by taking an incredible first ever double victory for the team today at Brno in the Czech Republic.
In doing so, Melandri collected a maximum 50 points and moved to within just 21 points of the WSBK Championship lead. Furthermore, with today‰Ûªs excellent results, BMW Motorrad has also taken the lead in the Manufacturer Standings.
The two races couldn‰Ûªt have been more different. Following earlier downpours, race one started in the trickiest conditions imaginable, with riders having no choice but to opt for slick tyres on a rapidly drying track.
Starting from the second row of the grid, Melandri rode with caution in the early stages, searching out the dry parts of the track, rather than taking the racing line.
By the time Melandri found his rhythm, the leading pack had pulled a considerable gap, so the talented Italian had to take some risks to stay in contention, despite lots of visible damp patches still remaining on circuit.
He passed Jakub Smrz on lap 5, then Maxime Berger and his own team-mate Leon Haslam a couple of laps later.
By half distance, he was about three seconds behind the leading bunch of riders, so he upped the pace once more, and was soon lapping nearly a second faster than leader Tom Sykes.
With just six laps remaining, Melandri joined the back of a six-way battle for the lead. He passed Eugene Laverty on lap 14, then Loris Baz on lap 15 and then went in front of Carlos Checa on lap 16 to move into a podium position.
Still on the hunt, Melandri slipped past Jonathan Rea on lap 17 to move into second place and then went on to take the lead, past Sykes, on the penultimate lap, holding on to take his fourth victory of the year by 1.360 seconds.
‰ÛÏI am living my dream today." enthused Milandri, "securing my first double victory here in Brno on this racetrack is something special."
"I am so happy because I already have five victories this season and nobody did expect it." he added.
"Race one was already amazing. At the beginning the conditions were very difficult as it was wet. As we were riding with slicks, we just tried not to lose too many positions, but in the first few laps I struggled a lot.
"While I tried to improve my position I made two mistakes because I still was not feeling comfortable. When I saw that I was eighth I said to myself that I need to stay quiet and keep my rhythm to catch the front guys." the BMW rider continued.
"It was not easy to overtake them. And when I took the lead with one lap to go I knew that I just needed to keep pushing as much as I could. I knew that I was faster than the others."
