Sunday pm - The Lessons from Brands
Shane Byrne: The Airwaves Ducati team has to figure out how he can get better starts. Potential wins are turning into second places – and that's dangerous when Cal Crutchlow is only going to get faster as he recovers from his ankle injury, and Tom Sykes starts getting the wins that his ability merits.
Tom Sykes: Must keep believing that his current wave of un-nerving luck – punted off by Leon Haslam at Oulton, dumped off by a high-speed engine blow-up at Brands – will end any race now and allow him to start winning.
Leon Haslam: Probably will want to question if he's trying just too hard. Leon led the second race at Brands for eight laps until he went straight on at Surtees and had to circle round and rejoin the race in 11th place.
James Ellison: Lost face after two stressful years in
MotoGP in 2005-06, but the Kendal kid is rapidly rebuilding his reputation on the Hydrex Bike Animal Honda. He now holds fourth place in the championship, and is the second highest Honda rider in the points table.
Sunday pm - Crutchlow Gets His Reward for Guts and Persistence
Cal Crutchlow survived the maddest race of the season in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship in the second leg at
Brands Hatch today to score his second victory of the season and keep alive his dented title hopes.
The 22-year-old HM Plant Honda rider, riding with a mangled right ankle, was leading on the 19th lap, but on his rear tyre were Tom Sykes, on a super-fast Rizla Suzuki, and championship leader Shane Byrne, waiting to unleash the torque of his Airwaves Ducati.
It looked like the walking-wounded Crutchlow would have to succumb – until Sykes' engine let go at high speed on Hawthorn Straight. The Suzuki went haywire – at one stage Sykes seemed to be riding backwards on its fuel tank as the GSX-R1000 careered along – and bike and rider ended in the dirt.
