Rain affects Aprilia at the Misano round of the World Superbike Championship Despite the inclement weather, 65,000 spectators braved the rain to watch the San Marino round of the World Superbike Championship at the Misano circuit. Rain fell on Sunday morning; with the sun finally making an appearance as the riders took to the track for Race One, however despite the sunshine dense clouds remained above the San Marino circuit whilst the track remained extremely wet. Byrne started off well and immediately took command of the race, which allowed him to break away from his competitors. Behind him a battle for the second and third podium positions ignited between the likes of Michele Fabrizio, Ben Spies, Noriyuki Haga and Carlos Checa. Lap after lap, the track began to dry and so began the process of riders swapping their motorcycles for their spare bikes which were prepared with slick tyres. Nakano was the first to take the gamble on the ninth lap and change motorcycles, on returning to the track he began to make up time on the front runners by shaving five seconds per lap off their times. The situation was in constant flux with Byrne choosing to remain on the track as long as possible, given the excellent lead he had obtained, but Spies managed to set an impressive pace after changing his bike and using slicks. Within just a few laps, he caught and passed the Ducati of Byrne and proceeded to take his eighth win of the season. Behind Spies and Byrne there was a battle for the third step on the podium between Fabrizio and Jakub Smrz but in the end it was the Italian rider who crossed the line behind Byrne and Spies. Nakano and his Aprilia RSV4 Factory crossed the line in ninth after a being in 20th position when re entering the track on slick tyres. Max Biaggi finished in 13th place, he started well however after the third lap he quickly began to lose ground. On the fifteenth lap Biaggi chose to change bikes in preference for slick tyres on a rapidly drying track however at that stage he was only able to manage a thirteenth place finish. Jonathan Rae on the Honda won the second race of the day ahead of Fabrizio and Haga. Haga took command of the race in the early stages and tried to break away however Rea, Fabrizio and Spies were able to match Haga’s pace and did not allow him to establish a lead. Spies suffered a technical problem on the third lap which resulted in him slipping to 20th place before eventually climbing to ninth position. By the fifth lap it was Rae who was in the lead, the Ducati’s of Fabrizio and Haga were able to match Rae’s pace and on the eighteenth lap Fabrizio passed the British rider, however Rae was not going to give up without a fight and Rae began attempted to pass Fabrizio at every turn. The last lap saw Rae succeed in an impossible overtaking maneuver and then skillfully closing off all opportunities to Fabrizio, Rae crossed the line by only sixty-three thousandths of a second in front of Fabrizio. Biaggi finished in tenth place as a result of a bad start which resulted in him circulating in ninth position for most of the race however with three laps to go the Aprilia rider was overtaken by Spies who was regaining ground after he suffered technical this move resulted in Biaggi finishing in tenth place. In 13th place was Shinya Nakano who also suffered from a bad start which saw him being trapped in a group of riders battling for 11th position. “I had a good start in Race One” commented Nakano “but it was difficult to set a good pace in the rain, so when I saw that the track had began to dry I decided to change to the slick tyres, it didn’t go too badly. In Race Two, I had a bad start which I tried to recover from but I ended up amongst a group of riders that all had exactly the same pace and it was difficult to pass. It has not been an easy weekend, we have been stagnant in the last few rounds but we need to look ahead and do well at Donnington next week.” “We started the weekend off with a lot of enthusiasm as this is one of our home races, not just for me but for the team and for Aprilia.” Said Biaggi “But it did not go well, we were unlucky in Superpole and the rain that hampered Race One and in Race Two we were affected by some problems. We need to take a step forward because the other manufactures and riders have developed to become more competitive and we are now not as competitive as what we used to be. We will test after the Donnington round of the Championship and develop the motorcycle further in the hope that we can be more competitive in the second half of the season.”