Spies Takes the Championship Lead at Nurburgring

Yamaha's Ben Spies has done his best at the Nurburgring GP circuit this weekend, as he managed to take the World Superbike Championship lead from Nori Haga. Ducati’s Japanese rider, however, did ‘help’ Spies a bit, as he scored an unfortunate DNF in the second race. The American rider therefore turned a seven point deficit into an 18-point advantage.

Race one saw Spies notching his 12th win of his rookie year, and Haga crossing the line almost four seconds behind. Meanwhile, Honda HannSpree Ten Kate’s rider, Carlos Checa, made his way to the third-place podium finish. American John Hopkins (Stiggy Honda) and Kawasaki’s Makoto Tamada both retired from Race 1 after a crash, but worldsbk.com reported they were both taken to the hospital for concussions.

As for the second race, Rea made his way to an impressive victory for the HannSpree Honda team, leaving Spies to be the second that crosses the finish line, while Checa clinched the third place once again. But as we said, the headline of the race was Haga’s DNF that let Spies heading to Imola from a leading position.

“It’s fantastic to be leading the championship, it’s what we came here to do, so we’re looking forward to getting to Imola and seeing if we can build on this. The team have been brilliant, and have worked really hard all weekend,” said Spies after the race.

On the other hand, Haga’s disappointment is quite understandable. "I'm not so happy, I wanted to win and I felt sure I could win that race. I tried to overtake Ben everywhere but in some parts he was quicker than me and in some parts my bike was quicker than his, but I couldn't get past him, he was a little faster than me so I had to settle for second place," he said.