A hot afternoon of racing in every way saw Italians Marco Melandri and Max Biaggi trade wins and second place finishes to squeeze the title leader Carlos Checa in the overall points standings at World Superbike’s Aragon debut in Spain.

The Spanish rider fell in race one at his home track and then took a well-deserved podium place, third, in race two.

Checa, desperate to make amends for sliding off as he chased the leading duo in race one, had to work hard to keep Michel Fabrizio behind him for much of the race.

Checa’s 16 points for third place mean that Biaggi is still 43 behind and Melandri is 66 adrift as the season clicked past its mid-point today.

“What a weekend with a crash in race one and struggling to catch Marco and Max in race two, but it was impossible,” Checa explained. “After reaching third I felt it was the best situation to stay in third.

“Honestly, it was quite acceptable and I am quite satisfied for race two, it was a shame because it was my home race, we wanted to be at the top but here was not the place.”

Spanish riders had some good and the occasional not so good results all round, with Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team) posting seventh in race one then finishing an season best equalling fifth in race two.

Irish rider Eugene Laverty put in a fourth and a sixth place today, to remain fourth overall.

This weekend WSB legend Noriyuki Haga took part in his 300th race and left with strong results of sixth and seventh to his credit.

Tom Sykes equalled fellow Kawasaki rider Lascorz’ prowess with fifth in race one, but a fall in race two spoiled an otherwise consistent and competitive weekend, as the whole Kawasaki effort took another step up with their new bike.

Once more it was a tough weekend for the BMW riders, this time from both official and satellite teams, with Leon Haslam scoring two ninth places and Ayrton Badovini was eighth and 10th.

The worst experience of all came for the luckless Troy Corser as an entirely accidental collision between him and Maxime Berger caused Troy’s left radius and ulna to fracture, putting him out of action in race two. He had been 10th in race one.

Corser’s compatriots Chris Vermeulen (12-14) and Mark Aitchison (15-12) were both in the points at Aragon, as they continue to gain momentum on their Kawasakis.

Chaz Davies won his third World Supersport race of the year and took the championship lead after a dramatic race at Motorland.

Sam Lowes was a close second but was unable to get into the slipstream of Davies to mount a last lap pass. David Salom and Massimo Roccoli finished third and forth respectively, in a race where two top contenders fell out of leading positions.

Poleman Broc Parkes and Luca Scassa no scored after separate crashes near the end.

Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Ducati) took his third win in the 1000cc Superstock category this year, with Australia’s Bryan Staring eighth. Fellow Aussie Beau Beaton retired from the race on Sunday.

On Saturday, Australia’s Jed Metcher took his first win of the season in the Superstock 600 race, becoming the fourth winner in four races this season.

Motorland Aragon also hosted the third round of the European Junior Cup, which saw a second successive win for Matt Davies. The Australian took the flag ahead of Germany’s Tom Busch and Spain’s Ruben Fenoll.

Busch leads the table with seven points advantage over Davies.