Winning double for Gregorio Lavilla in dramatic opening round

© GSE Racing. Gregorio Lavilla took a stylish winning double in the opening round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship on the Brands Hatch circuit where six months earlier a catalogue of misfortune had seen him lose the chance of retaining the title.Gregorio Lavilla got a dream start to his 2007 British Superbike campaign with a double win in round one at Brands Hatch today. Team mate Leon Haslam secured a 6th and 4th place to give the Airwaves Ducati team an early lead in the manufacturer's championship and Greg a 14 point advantage over his closest rival in the rider's standings.

Race one saw Leon move from 4th place on the grid into 3rd and Greg drop from 2nd to 4th position. However, by the end of lap 4 Greg had made his way into 2nd place setting a new lap record of 1:25.724 in the process. After a brief coming together with first placed Leon Camier Greg then took the lead on lap 7. Haslam remained in 4th, locked in a close battle for the final podium spot, with 3rd placed Chris Walker, as his team mate moved ahead of the field. However Leon dropped two places in the final 5 laps to finish the race in 6th. Greg crossed the line 1.701 seconds ahead of the rest of the field to achieve his first win of 2007.

© GSE Racing. Race two was action packed starting with Greg hitting turn one in first place he then proceeded to settle into a fast, comfortable rhythm. He had already built a good lead by the end of the first lap and a battle royal was building for the remaining podium places with six riders, including Airwaves Ducati rider Leon Haslam, challenging. Having pulled out a 10 second gap on the chasing pack Greg was clearly disappointed to have his lead written off by the introduction of the safety car on lap 15. The race distance was then increased to 23 laps and from the re-start Greg saw his massive lead slashed to under a second. However the Spaniard held onto to the top spot to take win number two. Haslam benefited from the safety car incident and had moved up to 4th when the race was red flagged and declared on lap 21.

© GSE Racing. Having achieved a dream start to his season Gregorio Lavilla said: "Obviously I am very happy with how today has gone for me, it has been a perfect start to the season. After I won the first race I was expecting the second race to be a really tough one but I went in front on the first lap and quickly got into my rhythm. I was trying to ride smoothly to conserve my tyres but when the safety car was called out my tyres cooled down and I nearly high sided when I tried to push hard again but my tyres were not up to temperature. My rhythm came back very quickly though and I was able to build on my lead again and win the race. I was pleased to get my first double at Brands Hatch which is the GSE Group's home circuit and it was even more special as Darrell was here to witness it."

Leon Haslam was a little disappointed with his day. "I am generally happy with my results today as I experienced problems in both races. Obviously I would have liked to be there challenging for the top couple of places but to come away with 6th and 4th was a great result for me. Dunlop really worked hard for me and it was a shame that I was not able to capitalise on that and achieve a podium place. Now I am looking forward to getting to Thruxton and getting my championship back on track."

Race One Results

1) Gregorio Lavilla - Airwaves Ducati
2) Leon Camier - Bike Animal Honda
3) Jonathan Rea - HM Plant Honda
4) Shane Byrne - Stobart Vent Axia
5) Chris Walker - Rizla Suzuki
6) Leon Haslam - Airwaves Ducati

Race Two Results

1) Gregorio Lavilla - Airwaves Ducati
2) Jonathan Rea - HM Plant Honda
3) Leon Camier - Bike Animal Honda
4) Leon Haslam - Airwaves Ducati
5) Tom Sykes - Stobart Vent Axia
6) Karl Harris - Hydrex Honda

Airwaves Speed League Winner - Gregorio Lavilla

(GSE Racing)