Marco Melandri Takes Lead In WSB Standings
It was a day of firsts at the Moscow Raceway, as the inaugural
Russian bike race saw Marco
Melandri take the lead in the standings for the first time.
The BMW rider came in second in Race 1 before winning Race 2 in
front of 32,500 motorsports
fans. He beat Tom Sykes by
less than a second in Race 2 after losing out to him earlier in the
day. The two riders battled it out for 25 laps as many other
favorites crashed out around them.
Melandri struggled early on after being stung by a wasp during the
first race. He recovered quickly and earned enough points to put
him ahead of Max Biaggi for
the top spot in the rankings. Biaggi finished third in Race 1
before crashing in the second and failing to finish. Melandri's
success marks the first time since the beginning of the season that
Biaggi hasn't been on top of the superbike leaderboard.
"Race 1 was very tough, so finishing second was for me like a win,"
said Melandri. "But in Race 2 I felt very good, we made a small
change on the bike and I felt very confident from the beginning.
About six or seven laps to go, my rear tire was sliding a lot but
was still working perfectly with the bike."
This was Melandri's sixth win of the season.