Portimao - Race 1: DNF, Race 2: 4th
It was a mixed day for Team Alstare Suzuki rider Max Neukirchner, who crashed out of race one, but the recovered to take a hard-fought for fourth place in race two. Troy Bayliss (Ducati) brought the curtain down on his remarkable WSBK career today, with a pair of runaway victories. Carlos Checa (Honda) was second in race one, with Troy Corser (Yamaha) third. In race two, his team mate Michel Fabrizio was second, with ‘wild card’ Leon Haslam (Honda) third.
Max: “I think that most of this weekend is about my youth and lack of experience. Other riders, with more experience, can get a good set-up in less time then me and this is what I am learning all the time. I am not sure why I crashed in race one because the telemetry doesn’t show me doing anything different or going any faster than the laps before. We changed the front fork rebound for race two and the bike felt much better, but I was still losing a lot of time in the last corner and that prevented me from catching and passing Fabrizio. I am a little angry because I really thought that I could finish second or third in the championship halfway though the season. But the last four or five races have had mixed weather conditions and my lack of experience has meant that I didn’t have the perfect bike set-up for raceday. My mechanics and I are a young team and we are learning all the time. They have all worked hard and I think our season has been a pretty good one, all in all.”
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