Superbike: Max Biaggi conquers the most awaited podium in Sepang

He wanted to do better than Misano and in the end he completely succeeded: in Sepang Max Biaggi, with impeccable race management, took third place in Race 1 aboard the Aprilia RSV4 RF.

An extraordinary result if you consider that Max was on his second "official" outing of the season, he is 44 years old and returned to racing three years after retiring from racing.
Starting as a fascinating and almost impossible challenge, the return of the Corsair astride his Aprilia he has now achieved an exceptional result, which represents his 71st podium in SBK.

Looking back at the news of the first heat, one cannot help but say that Biaggi was very clever in not pushing straight away, even at the cost of losing time and positions, but he tried to manage the wear of the tires so as not to finish on the rims for the second part of the race.
All this allowed him to get the better of his team mates, Torres and Haslam and, above all, to complete a sensational comeback against Sykes, in the midst of a tire crisis: Biaggi thus took third place and moved up on a Wsbk podium that he had missed since the Portimao race in 2012, his last full season.

Torres and Haslam, however, having difficulty managing their tyres, ended Race 1 far from the podium, seventh (Haslam) and tenth (Torres), after having been protagonists, with new tyres, in the first part of the race.

Unfortunately for Max Biaggi, the plan to do better than Misano was interrupted halfway: in fact, in Race 2, during the first laps, he fell following a contact in the group with Tom Sykes, which forced him to abandon the race, after an excellent start chr had put him in the lead at the first corner.
Keeping morale high in Aprilia was Jordi Torres, who also took third place, his second podium of the season, arriving at the end of a race of great consistency in which he showed up having revolutionized the bike with the aim to manage the tires better.
Haslam was still delayed and finished sixth, having difficulty with tire management.

“The podium is an incredible result. It's a successful gamble, that of raising the bar to something that no one has ever done” – he said Max Biaggi – “My race pace was consistent. Rea, Davie and Sykes immediately ran away, I tried to find my pace trying not to destroy the tire by heating it up too much. It wasn't easy because at the same time you have to push. After passing my teammates I started thinking about Sykes as he was getting closer and closer. I managed to catch him and pass him on the last lap. I'm extremely happy, it's the result I dreamed of, a real icing on the cake and the best I could achieve. The crash in Race 2 doesn't take anything away from my satisfaction. The end of this weekend now allows me to reveal that the crash I suffered here in last week's testing "gave" me a dislocated left shoulder and a stitch wound to my right ankle. It was mainly my shoulder that bothered me, especially in the guided part. But we gritted our teeth and everything went beautifully, one more reason to run on a happy holiday."

“First of all I have to thank my team, between Race 1 and Race 2 the guys did an incredible job, changing the bike, acting on the set-up and the electronic adjustments, in particular on the engine braking. This allowed me to ride more smoothly” – he said Jordi Torres – “Maybe, instinctively, I would have wanted something more aggressive but this allowed me to manage the tires better in the second race and take this podium which makes me happy, evidently it is my destiny this season, I need a bad Race 1 and then having great results in the second. It was an important race because it taught me a lot, and that's what I want this season. Now I can't wait to be in Jerez, to give 100%." 
“I had problems in both races. The front end tended to close a lot. If I tried to save the rear tire I stressed the front one and lost speed when entering the corner. In the first race the tires wore out very quickly and I couldn't keep a fast enough pace” – he said Leon Haslam – “In the second I started well, but in the end I lapped slower than in the first. At the end I tried to overtake the riders in front of me, but I didn't have enough grip. I'm very disappointed, because on this track the goal was to get on the podium and instead we didn't succeed."