A good start from pole position in race one saw him quickly into second behind Johnny Rea. Crutchlow then played the waiting game, comfortably following the Honda rider just 0.1 seconds behind until mid race before taking the lead- Images Yamaha Racing.com

Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike YZF-R1 rider Cal Crutchlow made it two in a row today at Silverstone, delivering the double win at his home race. The British rider ended a flawless weekend´s riding with a masterful display of race craft. A good start from pole position in race one saw him quickly into second behind Johnny Rea. Crutchlow then played the waiting game, comfortably following the Honda rider just 0.1 seconds behind until mid race before taking the lead. He surrendered briefly to Rea but then re-took quickly and pulled away to build a 1.6 second lead as he crossed the line to claim his maiden win of the championship. Race two saw a repeat of the first with Crutchlow quickly settling in behind Rea, again maintaining a gap of just 0.1 to 0.2 seconds until just three laps from the end when he again pulled out to take the lead. The Yamaha YZF-R1´s incredible pace saw him take the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap, building a two second advantage as he crossed the line to deliver the long awaited double victory for Yamaha.

Cal Crutchlow´s incredible performance means he leaves Silverstone having jumped up from tenth to fifth in the rankings, now sitting on 188 points, 55 points behind Carlos Checa in third. Team mate James Toseland remains in sixth place, now on 179 points as they head to the Nurburgring at the beginning of September after the summer break.

Cal Cruchlow on the podium at Silverstone

Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team, (1st, 1st)
?We´ve been trying so hard all year to achieve a win, I´m ecstatic that it has happened at my home race. It´s been a tough weekend with all the Brits trying hard but we knew we had the pace. We were worried about tyre wear but it wasn´t too bad. It was a little bit cooler in the first race which helped our bike as well. We now need to carry on and fight for the rest of the season. It´s been a dream come true today, three Brits on the podium for both races is brilliant. The British fans have been fantastic, they came out today and gave us tremendous support all round the circuit, a brilliant day for me, a brilliant day for Yamaha, Sterilgarda and all our other sponsors. All credit to Johnny Rea he rode really well in both races but I was able to pick him off with a couple of laps to go.?

Jonathan Rea Silverstone

Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider, Jonathan Rea, finished second in both today’s tenth round World Superbike championship races at Silverstone in the UK. The two 18-lap encounters around the revised 5.902km Silverstone circuit were won by British rider Cal Crutchlow, with Leon Haslam and Leon Camier each taking a third place to make two all-British podiums.

Starting from second place on the grid, Rea, 23, grabbed the holeshot in both outings, leading the first for the opening eleven laps as he and Crutchlow built a commanding lead over third placed Haslam. Race two was almost a carbon copy, with Rea leading until lap 15, when Crutchlow again hit the front and made a break for the flag. The results strengthened Rea’s hold on third place in the championship. After two difficult qualifying sessions, Rea’s Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Max Neukirchner, made a radical change to the rear of his CBR1000RR for morning warm-up and ran with the setting for the races.

In the first, he was able to climb from his grid position of 18th to 11th at the flag. The German looked set to repeat the performance and break into the top ten in race two, before a mechanical problem forced his retirement.

Jonathan Rea – 2nd and 2nd
In race one Cal had a little bit more pace than me, where I was missing maybe a couple of tenths a lap. The bike was working very well, but we got let down by the tyre a little bit, I think, because it definitely felt a lot different to the one I used in warm-up this morning. I thought I might have the pace in race two, but well-done to Cal – he did a great job and rode absolutely superbly. My team gave me a great bike this weekend that allowed me to at least fight for the wins here. I’m really happy and really enjoyed riding at Silverstone this weekend and we’ve had a couple of good results t o take into the summer break.

Leon Haslem a Silverstone

Team Suzuki Alstare rider Leon Haslam endured two tough 18-lap races at the British World Superbike 10th round at Silverstone – racing to third in race one and a fourth in race two –  but closed the gap on series leader Max Biaggi.

But it was a day of frustration for the young Brit because he felt he could’ve challenged for the wins if things had gone his way a bit more and that would’ve narrowed the gap even more.

Haslam’s team mate Sylvain Guintoli suffered with having a too-hard tyre in race one and ended 12th. He used a softer tyre in race two and had a much better race, finishing seventh.

British riders filled all six spots of both podiums today in front of a home crowd of 65,000. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) took his first WSBK victory in race one and then followed it up with another win in race two. Jonathan Rea (Honda) took runner-up spot both times, with Haslam taking third in race one and Leon Camier (Aprilia) taking third in race two.

Leon Haslam – Race 1: 3rd, Race 2: 4th:
“Generally, I feel that today has been a bit frustrating because I think it could’ve and should’ve been better. When our package is perfect, I know I can challenge for wins, but when it is not, it can be a bit of a struggle and that’s how it was today. I made a bad start in the first race but managed to close the gap on the leaders and was getting ready to mount an attack on Jonathan Rea, but had gearbox problems for the last seven laps, so couldn’t push harder and get closer to him. A podium is not bad though, and it was good to be up there with two other Brits.

“We used a different engine in race two, but everything else was the same, including the tyres. However, this time the grip feeling was completely different and I really had to work hard to keep in the top four or so. On the last lap, I had a big fight with James Toseland. He passed me, but I was determined to get him back and that’s what I did. On the last turn, he tried to get round the outside of me at the beginning of the start-finish straight and hit me, breaking my tail fairing and exhaust bracket in the process. It was a bit of a hairy moment, but happily we both stayed on our bikes and crossed the line OK. It was a tough end to a hard race but, just like race one, I was happy to finish ahead of Max Biaggi. It would’ve better, if I could’ve got some more points, but that’s how it went today.”