Hamilton crashes out at Cadwell Park

The local rider went down during first qualifying at the Gooseneck, thankfully it is a clean break and he will be going straight to Ipswich for laser treatment to ensure he is fit for round five at Mallory Park.

Jamie said: “I’m gutted that this has happened as I felt I was on for a strong race weekend. You have to look at the positives and they are, it’s a clean break and it is five weeks before the next round at Mallory Park. I’ll concentrate on getting better and see what Mallory brings.”

He plans on being back for round five of the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship at Mallory Park in Leicestershire on the 25th-27th June.

Podium places for

Laverty while Seeley

takes two top 10 finishes

Michael Laverty used Cadwell Park’s undulating curves to his advantage at round four of the British Superbike Championship last Sunday, forcing his way up the championship standings with a second and a third finish on his Relentless by TAS Suzuki. Laverty now occupies third place in the BSB standings on 101 points, only nine behind second placed man Josh Brookes with fellow Suzuki pilot Tommy Hill still on top with 146.

Alastair Seeley had a tough weekend, but after struggling with minor set-up and confidence issues after a slip off during Saturday’s Q2 session, the Carrick rider took a nineth and a seventh. Seeley now occupies seventh in the championship standings on 79 points, but is only a single point outside the magical top six.

A happy Michael Laverty commented: “It’s been a good day for me coming away with two podium finishes – an almost perfect day, but as a racer I always want to win and it would have been nice to put the Relentless by TAS Suzuki on the top step. I was suffering with arm pump today and that sort of spoiled any chance I had of the victory, but I’m happy and we’ve now moved up to third in the championship. I also proved that the Oulton win was no fluke and the team has also done an awesome job for me again this weekend. I really believe we have established ourselves as genuine championship contenders.”

Alastair said: “John Reynolds told me weekends like this are character building and I have to agree. We struggled with set-up early in the weekend and my tip off at Charlie’s in qualifying knocked my confidence a bit, but I’m not making excuses. The boys helped me a lot and we made some changes to the bike over night, which transformed it and helped my confidence. With only three bikes to a row here at Cadwell it makes qualifying so important. I got beaten up a bit at the start of race one by Brogie; after that I put the hammer down and picked them off for ninth. In race two I got a better start but took a while to get dialled in, but seventh wasn’t so bad and we took six tenths off my best lap from the opening race. We are back here in August so I will learn from the experience. We are off to Mallory next and it is another circuit I have very little track time at. We are hopefully having a pre race test at the place before the meeting.”

The HM Plant Honda team celebrated a double victory at Cadwell Park, with Ryuichi Kiyonari and Josh Brookes taking one race a piece and their first victories at the Lincolnshire circuit.

Lorenzo wins in France

Jorge Lorenzo stormed clear of Valentino Rossi to take his second win in a row in last Sunday’s Monster Engery Grand Prix of France Le Mans, making it three victories from three races for the Fiat Yamaha Team this year. Rossi overcame a few problems with both his bike and his shoulder to finish second, with Spaniard Andrea Dovizioso on the Repsol Honda third.

Rossi started from pole and got a brilliant start to lead out of the first turn, in front of some 80,000 sun baked fans. 23-year-old Lorenzo slipped slipped into third at the start, before passing Dani Pedrosa back soon after to retake second. The Italian and the two Spaniards soon stretched out a gap from the chasing pack and Lorenzo started to look menacing on his team-mate's rear wheel, trying to pass a few times but failing as Rossi braked deeper and deeper.

It was not until lap twelve that the 23-year-old got by his team-mate and he quickly began to pull away, as the World Champion struggled to find enough grip on acceleration to stay with Lorenzo. The young Mallorcan eventually crossed the line 5.672 seconds ahead to take his first back-to-back wins in MotoGP and stand on top of the Le Mans podium for the second year running stretching his lead at the top of the championship to nine points.

A delighted race winner said: "I am so happy to win for the second race in a row, it's the first time for me in MotoGP and it makes me feel very confident in myself. Finally I did a good start, which I'm really happy about, then I easily got past Pedrosa. Passing Valentino wasn't so easy because he was braking so deep and I had to be very patient, something that I might not have managed one year ago. Finally, I overtook him but I didn't expect to be able to go away in that way, my bike and Bridgestone tyres just felt so good and it wasn't difficult for me to keep this pace up. I have had a good time in Le Mans since I joined Yamaha; one second and two victories, so I think I can say I enjoy racing here in France! It is fantastic to be leading the championship but there is a long way to go and now we go to Mugello, a track that I love but where my rivals are very strong."

Rossi added: "I got a very good start but I knew from the beginning that we lacked some pace compared to Lorenzo and we had some unexpected problems in the race, mainly to do with grip on exit and acceleration from the corners. I expected to be faster but it wasn't the case today. Now I am looking forward to being back on top form for Mugello, my home race."

Casey Stoner’s season just got worse when he slid off his Marlboro Ducati at turn six, on lap two and was unable to remount leaving his title aspirations in tatters.

A thrilling last lap played out as Dovizioso forced his way through on Pedrosa to take third, and Hayden also squeezed past the Spaniard after he ran wide.

Nicky Hayden finished fourth for the third consecutive race, with Pedrosa ending the race in fifth. Marco Melandri was sixth.