The 2012 Superbike World Championship concluded this weekend in France at the Magny-Cours circuit. Both Bel-Ray Team Althea Ducati racers, Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano, finished within the top ten of the series in overall points with Checa in fourth and Giugliano in tenth.
Magny-Cours marked the final race for the Ducati 1198 machine. The team will compete aboard the new 1199 Panigale for the 2013 season.
Checa started strong in the first race of the day. Teammate Giugliano did not start as strong and descended to seventeenth place early in the race. A victim of the weather, Checa crashed on the seventh lap and was unable to return to the race. Meanwhile, Giugliano moved through the field for an eventual eighth place finish.
The second race was better for the team as both racers finished within the top ten at the checkered flag with Giugliano in sixth and Checa in seventh.
Checa spoke about the race and his season following the final event of the year: “It was a strange weekend. A pity for the crash in race 1 but conditions were difficult and the track was very slippery; these things happen. Then in the second I didn’t have the same feelings that I’d had yesterday, the bike seemed different and was moving a lot more. This made it hard and I couldn’t lap with the kind of times that I expected. Anyway, the season is over, it was long and we had highs and lows along the way. I’m happy to close in fourth overall because considering the problems we’ve had I don’t think the final result is bad.”
Giugliano also spoke about the race after the checkered flag: “The first race was pretty unlucky for us. We knew we had good pace and I think we had the potential to finish perhaps third but I had some small problems that prevented me from achieving that – first I had an issue with the gears and then I made a couple of small mistakes, meaning I lost a lot of time. In the second race, to tell the truth, I had this dream of winning it. Unfortunately I lost a lot of time when Melandri crashed in front of me and I knew it wouldn’t be possible. But anyway I finished ahead of my team-mate and I also won my first Pirelli award for having made the fastest lap, so I’m happy about that.”
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