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 It wasn’t an easy start for Cal Crutchlow and James Toseland today at the season opening race in Phillip Island Australia. Race one saw both riders crash out, Crutchlow losing the front having run wide on onto a dirty section of track on lap two and Toseland highsiding on the fifth lap.
Race two saw a fiercely contested battle for points with both riders fighting off riders including Biaggi, Corser and others to stay within the top ten. Combined with a less than perfect set up on both bikes and struggling for grip the riders put in an incredible ride to bring their bikes home in the points, Crutchlow in ninth and Toseland tenth.
Crutchlow moves on to round two in Portimao in 12th position in the championship on seven points, team-mate Toseland sits just behind in 13th with six points.
Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (DNF, 9th)
“Race one was unfortunate, I felt we had good pace and were running up in the top five quite comfortably, I just made a little mistake. I was a bit better than Rea into the hairpin so had to run wide to avoid him and lost the front on the dirt. The second race was hard, I felt like I had no grip from the start and still some chattering. If we had better grip we could have pulled more out of it. We need to go back to the drawing board and work some stuff out.”
Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team Manager
“It was definitely a really tough weekend for us. We solved some problems, and some we still have to work on. As we spent the two day test and the first day of the race weekend resolving the chatter issue, qualifying and race day was our first opportunity to really test the 2010 bike set up. We’ve seen that we have the potential to do well so we will go home and start working on the solutions to be ready to fight for the Portimao races. The team have worked really hard over the last few days to try and solve the issues and both Cal and James have given 100% to meet the challenges.”
Published on February 28, 2010 by jezzer |
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Next Race
9th May
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Monza, Italy |
Championship Standings
1.
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Leon Haslam
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SUZUKI
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148
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2.
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Max Biaggi |
APRILIA
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128
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3.
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Jonathan Rea |
HONDA
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110
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4.
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Carlos Checa |
DUCATI
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103
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5.
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James Toseland
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YAMAHA
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86
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10.
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Cal Crutchlow
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YAMAHA
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49
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2010 Schedule
28th Feb
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Philip Island, Australia
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28th Mar
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Portimao, Portugal
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11th Apr
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Valencia, Spain
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23th Apr
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Assen, Holland
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9th May
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Monza, Italy
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16th May
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Kyalami, South Africa
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31st May
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Miller Motorsport, USA
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27th Jun
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Misano, Italy
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11th Jul
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Brno, Czech Republic
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1st Aug
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Silverstone, U.K
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5th Sept
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Nurburgring, Germany
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26thSept
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Imola, Italy
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3rd Oct
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Magny Cours, France
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