London - Arabstoday
The third round of the 2012 World Superbike season took place under changeable weather conditions at Assen on Sunday, when victories were shared between Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati) and Jonathan Rea (Honda). Guintoli took his first ever WSBK win during soaking conditions in the restarted opening race. The Effenbert Liberty rider rose from eighth to take the lead from championship leader Carlos Checa on lap 7 of 9, while rookie Davide Giugliano squeezed past team-mate Checa for second place and a first WSBK rostrum. BMW saw hopes of a first win slip away when Leon Haslam and then Ayrton Badovini fell from the lead. Haslam\'s team-mate Marco Melandri had been leading from Guintoli and Jakub Smrz when the first race was interrupted by the weather. Race two, held on a drying track, saw Rea unleash his Assen magic to catch Smrz and hand Honda its first victory of the season. Guintoli was denied a double victory by 2.8sec while Eugene Laverty took his first podium as an Aprilia rider. Team-mate Max Biaggi, who missed the cut for Superpole after being caught out by the weather, kept his cool to retake the world championship lead by one point over Checa. All things considered, we want to know your star of the day at Assen. A shortlist of ten riders can be found by clicking below. After voting you will see the current results.