A change to the front end of his Pata Honda CBR1000RR helped Michel Fabrizio secure a top ten finish in today’s second 12th-round World Superbike championship race at Laguna Seca in the USA.

As in yesterday’s opener, the 29-year-old Italian started from 13th place on the grid but his crew had raised the front end of his machine following this morning’s warm-up which allowed him eventually to overhaul his Pata Honda team-mate Leon Haslam. His result also moves him to seventh in the championship standings, one point ahead of injured Pata Honda rider Jonathan Rea.

Haslam himself started from 12th on the grid after electronics gremlins hampered yesterday’s Superpole 2 and the 30-year-old British rider suffered further engine management problems which restricted him to 11th place at the end of today 26-lap race.

The Pata Honda team will re-group at Magny-Cours in France in just three days to prepare for the penultimate round of the 2013 World Superbike championship next weekend, 4-6 October.

Michel Fabrizio – 10th

Starting from the fifth row was difficult but after the changes that we made after warm-up this morning, my confidence in the front was much better and I was able to do 1m24s laps in the race, so I was very happy. I felt much more comfortable on the bike and although the result is not perfect I think I could have finished higher with a better starting position. I am happy that we were able to make these steps forward after the problems earlier in the weekend.

Leon Haslam – 11th

It’s been another frustrating race day and I was more than a second a lap slower than the times I was doing yesterday. I had a lot of traction control problems and not so much grip from the rear. I was also suffering a little from the affects of yesterday’s crash, but it’s definitely not what we were looking for. My pace yesterday was good for top four or five but I wasn’t close to that, so it’s not been good.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

Leon had problems yesterday so we tried to make some changes in warm-up this morning. The grip level was down a bit so we made more alterations for the race. We still need to check the data but he had some problems in the race and could finish no better than 11th. Michel got tenth after some changes to his bike that were in the right direction. They allowed him to do some decent lap times and at least race the bike, but there is clearly still more work to do.

Event results - Round 12 - Race 1

1 Tom Sykes 16m55.703s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Chaz Davies 1.253 GBR BMW BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team
3 Eugene Laverty 2.454 IRL APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
4 Marco Melandri 2.650 ITA BMW BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team
5 Sylvain Guintoli 3.430 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
6 Davide Giugliano 3.584 ITA APRILIA Althea Racing
7 Jules Cluzel 9.134 FRA SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
8 Toni Elias 11.252 SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
9 Ayrton Badovini 14.140 ITA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
10 Mark Aitchinson 17.830 AUS DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
11 David Salom 18.010 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
12 Blake Young 21.767 USA SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
13 Michel Fabrizio 22.087 ITA HONDA Pata Honda
14 Federico Sandi 32.837 ITA KAWASAKI Pedercini Team
15 Vittorio Iannuzzo 34.267 ITA BMW Team Grillini Dentalmatic
16 Glen Allerton 50.167 AUS BMW Next Gen Motorsports

Event results - Round 12 - Race 2

1 Eugene Laverty 36m44.555s IRL APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
2 Davide Giugliano 0.112 ITA APRILIA Althea Racing
3 Marco Melandri 2.051 ITA BMW BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team
4 Tom Sykes 2.304 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
5 Sylvain Guintoli 2.959 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
6 Jules Cluzel 10.187 FRA SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
7 Toni Elias 17.789 SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
8 Roger Lee Hayden 20.602 USA SUZUKI (Michael Jordan Motorsports)
9 David Salom 22.055 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
10 Michel Fabrizio 23.472 ITA HONDA Pata Honda
11 Leon Haslam 24.118 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
12 Blake Young 29.563 USA SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
13 Mark Aitchinson 32.565 AUS DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
14 Danny Eslick 51.777 USA SUZUKI (Michael Jordan Motorsports)
15 Niccolo Canepa 1'05.824 ITA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
16 Vittorio Iannuzzo 1'23.892 ITA BMW Team Grillini Dentalmatic
17 Glen Allerton 1 Lap AUS BMW Next Gen Motorsports
18 Ayrton Badovini DNF ITA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
19 Chaz Davies DNF GBR BMW BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team
20 Federico Sandi DNF ITA KAWASAKI Pedercini Team

Championship standings

1 Tom Sykes 361 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Eugene Laverty 338 pts IRL APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Sylvain Guintoli 337 pts FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
4 Marco Melandri 319 pts ITA BMW BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team
5 Chaz Davies 259 pts GBR BMW BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team
6 Loris Baz 180 pts FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
7 Michel Fabrizio 177 pts ITA HONDA Pata Honda
8 Jonathan Rea 176 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
9 Davide Giugliano 169 pts ITA APRILIA Althea Racing
10 Jules Cluzel 160 pts FRA SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
11 Leon Camier 114 pts GBR SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
12 Ayrton Badovini 114 pts ITA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
13 Max Neukirchner 84 pts GER DUCATI MR-Racing
14 Leon Haslam 83 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
15 Carlos Checa 80 pts SPA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
16 Federico Sandi 47 pts ITA KAWASAKI Pedercini Team
17 Toni Elias 38 pts SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
18 Mark Aitchinson 29 pts AUS DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
19 Vittorio Iannuzzo 26 pts ITA BMW Team Grillini Dentalmatic
20 Ivan Clementi 18 pts ITA BMW HTM Racing
21 Niccolo Canepa 12 pts ITA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
22 David Salom 12 pts ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
23 Alexander Lundh 10 pts SWE KAWASAKI Pedercini Team
24 Roger Lee Hayden 8 pts USA SUZUKI (Michael Jordan Motorsports)
25 Fabrizio Lai 8 pts FRA KAWASAKI Pedercini Team
26 Blake Young 8 pts USA SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
27 Markus Reiterberger 7 pts GER BMW Vanzon-Remeha-BMW
28 Glen Allerton 6 pts AUS BMW Next Gen Motorsports
29 Tolga Uprak 5 pts TUR KAWASAKI CMS-Eypbike Racing Team
30 Matej Smrz 4 pts GER YAMAHA Yamaha Motor Deutschland
31 Jamie Stauffer 4 pts AUS HONDA Team Honda Racing
32 Yunus Ercelik 3 pts TUR BMW Sampiyon 169 Team
33 Noriyuki Haga 2 pts JPN BMW Team Grillini Dentalmatic
34 Kosuke Akiyoshi 2 pts JPN HONDA Pata Honda
35 Danny Eslick 2 pts USA SUZUKI (Michael Jordan Motorsports)

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