1  21 Marino F. (FRA) Honda CBR600RR 2'15.114 
2  11 Guarnoni J. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 2'15.480 
3  41 Mossey L. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R6 2'15.869 
4  10 Calero Perez N. (ESP) Yamaha YZF R6 2'17.153 
5   6 Lanusse R. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 2'17.487 
6  28 Le Coquen S. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 2'17.800 
7  27 Fanelli D. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 2'17.879 
8   9 Elliott J. (GBR) Kawasaki ZX-6R 2'17.897 
9  52 Duwelz G. (BEL) Yamaha YZF R6 2'18.232 
10  13 Lombardi B. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 2'18.722 
11  72 Karlsen F. (NOR) Yamaha YZF R6 2'20.749 
12  99 Covena T. (NED) Yamaha YZF R6 2'21.812 
13  66 De Tournay R. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 2'22.768 
14  26 Vrajitoru M. (ROU) Yamaha YZF R6 2'23.235 
15  69 Major N. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 2'23.965 
16  19 Krajci T. (SVK) Yamaha YZF R6 2'27.712 

In his debut season in World Superbike Yamaha Sterilgarda man Cal Crutchlow looks to be well on his way to becoming the ‘Rookie of the Year'. Four podiums, all third places, as well as four poles and four fastest laps however are for the moment not a particularly satisfying tally for the 24 year-old from Coventry, who will be trying to propel himself and his Yamaha R1 to his and its first win of the year at the UK circuit.

"The home race is no different to any other race," said Cal Crutchlow. "I always want to do well and give it my best shot. Last year in World Supersport at Donington I did the same. I especially hope that we put on a good show for all the fans that turn out to see the seven Brits in action. We had some tyre issues at Brno; hopefully these won't be repeated this round and we can focus on being fastest all weekend and delivering two race wins."

Crutchlow's crew chief Marcus Eschenbacher is convinced that it will not be easy to find the right set-up on a track that is full of character. "Silverstone is a completely new track for us so we have to evaluate a new gearbox, chassis and electronic setup. The track has all kinds of character, a fast part and also a very tight infield. The challenge will be to find the best compromise in a very short timeframe. We will start the weekend with our base setup that we've developed bit by bit. We also have some new chassis setups to try; this will be introduced in the spare bike. So we hope to find the best gearbox and base setup on Friday and start fine tuning on Saturday."

100 and 150: Max Biaggi and Jakub Smrz in Silverstone will start their 100th Superbike race. It's an important race also for Aprilia, at their 150th start.

• Shane Byrne was present in the 2002 races, the first held in Silverstone, when he classified ninth and fifth;

• Troy Corser reached the podium three times out of nine in Silverstone. His best result is a second in both 2005 races;

• Michel Fabrizio retired twice out of three races run in Silverstone: he only finished in 2006 in race two, fifteenth. He won the Superstock 1000 race in 2003;

• Noriyuki Haga won the first race in 2004. Curiously he has finished second five times, including the last three races run here. Noriyuki always qualified on the front row in the British track;

• Leon Haslam was fifth and fourth in the 2004 races, the only time he raced there for the World Superbike Championship;

• Lorenzo Lanzi obtained his best result in the last of his five races run here, in 2007, when he was seventh. He was the polesitter in the 2003 Superstock 1000 race;

• The opposite can be said for Max Neukirchner, who obtained his best result on his first visit here, in 2005, race 1 (seventh). His best qualifying effort came in the same year, when he was tenth;

• James Toseland won race 2 in 2005, has climbed on the podium a total of five times and, if we exclude a retirement in the first 2004 race, he has always classified in the top 10. James is the only one to have started in all eleven races held here;

• Ruben Xaus has finished all his Silverstone races, climbing onto the podium three times in third and always finishing in the top-10, both in qualifying and in the races.

• Aprilia finished the first Silverstone race in second place, in 2002, with Noriyuki Haga;

• Ducati has won nine of the eleven races run here. The Borgo Panigale squad missed out on only the first 2002 race, won by Colin Edwards on a Honda and the second 2004 race, won by Chris Vermeulen, again on a Honda;

• Alongside the aforementioned two wins, Honda scored four more podium placements. The Japanese manufacturer has always placed a bike inside the top 4 at the finish except for the 2003 edition, when they were not involved with a works team;

• Kawasaki has never managed to climb on the podium in Silverstone, but since 2004 have always placed a bike in the top 10. The best result came in 2002, race 2, when Chris Walker was fourth;

• Three podium placements for Suzuki, always in second place: in 2003 race 2 with Gregorio Lavilla and in both 2005 races with Troy Corser;

• Yamaha in the last three races held here have always classified in second place, in all three cases with Noriyuki Haga;

• In the last three editions the pole went to three different manufacturers: 2005 Suzuki, 2006 Yamaha and 2007 Ducati.

MILESTONES AT SILVERSTONE

2003 - first fastest lap and tenth podium for Gregorio Lavilla;
2004 - first win and first fastest lap (the 75th for Honda) for Chris Vermeulen;
2005 - tenth fastest lap for Regis Laconi; 250th race start for Pierfrancesco Chili;
2006 - first pole position for Tommy Hill at his first presence;
2007 - 110th podium for Troy Corser, 50th fastest race lap for Yamaha.

Aussie Troy Corser will be back on track this weekend at Silverstone after taking part in a test session on Tuesday at Mugello for a check on his physical condition. The BMW Motorrad rider slipped back to seventh in the championship in the last round at Brno after a big qualifying crash saw him sit out the rest of the meeting with heavy bruising. Since then, he's been working hard on his fitness, and the test confirmed he'll be ready for action at Silverstone.

"I'm looking forward to Silverstone. I spend a fair amount of the year in Great Britain and expect to see a lot of family friends at the track, so it will be something of a second home race for me," said Corser. "I've already had a chance to take a look around the new track. The new layout looks very good and surface grip seems pretty consistent. There are a few bumps, especially where the new asphalt has been laid."

"I'm expecting us to do a good job here with our bike; we've done a lot of work on chassis set-up and the bumps shouldn't be a particularly big problem. Engine power is a major factor at Silverstone, as the circuit has several long straights. There are also a handful of long, sweeping corners, which load up the tyres on one side, so it's important to have a good throttle connection."

Reigning Italian Superstock 600 champion Andrea Boscoscuro from Vicenza will replace the injured Marco Bussolotti on the All Service System by QDP Honda in this weekend's round of the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup at Silverstone. Bussolotti was involved in a nasty crash at Brno, suffering a cracked vertebra, and be out of action for some time. The team decided to replace him with another talented Italian youngster, Boscoscuro, who will race in both the FIM Cup and the CIV domestic series and who will debut in Superstock 1000 at Silverstone.

"Marco's injury at Brno was an unfortunate event that forms part of racing and I'd like to send him my best wishes for a total recovery on behalf of all the team," declared team manager Riccardo Grimaldi. "The decision to replace him with Andrea is motivated by the desire to continue with a competitive young rider who can carry on the good work we've done so far. There were no useful opportunities to carry out any tests before the Silverstone race so our expectations for a good result are not very high, but we will support Andrea as he familiarizes himself with the new bike and the FIM Cup".

Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki Racing Team) is now recovering from an extensive reconstruction operation on his long-term right knee injury. Chris is out of hospital and resting in Barcelona, where he hopes to have his stitches out this coming Friday, and start his road to recovery, quite soon.

Said Chris, "The operation lasted for two and a half hours but it was supposed to be shorter than that. They found more damage in there than they thought they would after looking at the scans. But they went in there and fixed it, it is all reconstructed now and on Friday I should get my stitches out. I am not allowed to bend it or put any weight on it for three weeks."

Vermeulen took this seemingly drastic action to rebuild his knee, as it was not healing up fast enough to allow him to race at full pace. With a new bike to ride in 2011 he opted to take the necessary steps to be fully fit for next season by stopping his 2010 season early. "The idea was to make sure the healing process would be permanent, so that's why we stopped and fixed everything that was wrong in there," said Chris. "The physiotherapy should be quite hard and intense when it starts, but hopefully I will have a knee that will be as good as it was before the crash."

The Sports Bar and Grill at Marylebone Station in Central London was the venue for a pre-Silverstone media event this week with Leon Haslam, a Suzuki Alstare GSX-R1000 and an attractive Viru girl. Leon was interviewed by both specialist and non-specialist press about his prospects for Silverstone and the season ahead in a relaxed and easy atmosphere.

The Sports Bar Grill is a London-based restaurant with a sporty atmosphere, with walls decorated with signed posters, clothing and memorabilia from sportsmen and women from all over the world. Pride of place, in the front window overlooking the busy street, is a 2010 GSX-R1000 Suzuki, fully painted and stickered up in Suzuki Alstare race colours.

The event was also an opportunity for Leon to show off his latest Arai RX-7 GP helmet, which he will wear at Silverstone. The helmet has been designed jointly by RAFA (Royal Air Force Association) and Arai and commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and supports the RAFA Wings Appeal charity.

Max Biaggi will be aiming to celebrate his 100th World Superbike race in the best possible way this weekend at the revamped Silverstone circuit. This season the ‘Pirate' is playing the role of Hannibal the Cannibal, by strengthening his leadership in the points standings with a swathe of victories. For the Italian the British Round also has particular significance as he reaches the 100-race mark in World Superbike.

"To arrive at this point of the season with a 68-point lead over my closest rivals is an amazing result in itself," declared Biaggi, " especially considering that we are only in our second year of world championship competition with a new bike. Now we are in the lead we certainly do not want to let this occasion slip away from our grasp, we fully deserve every single result given the great job both me and my team have done. Silverstone is a new track for everyone, I think that already in first practice we'll have some sort of idea about the way things are going to go.

"We are a bit concerned about the rough track surface, seeing as the RSV4 doesn't seem to like this very much, but we also know where to intervene. The races at Misano and race 2 at Brno showed that hard work pays off and minor problems are for sure not insurmountable obstacles. My aim for this race is to finish in the top 4."

2007 - After Donington, another race of the 2007 championship on British soil was marred by the weather: in Silverstone the rain was heavy on Sunday and the first race was almost processional as the riders tried to avoid costly mistakes. Bayliss, Haga and Corser ran in formation in the second part of the race, without any major episodes among them, and finished in that order. All attention however was on Toseland: James fell in the early stages and broke a pipe in his cooling system. He climbed back on the bike and was able to finish eighth, with practically no coolant in his radiators! Race two was cancelled due to the extremely poor weather conditions.

2006 - At Silverstone heavy rain was present on Saturday and pole position went to local boy Tommy Hill. The races were dry and the usual suspects were out in front: Haga took the lead followed by Bayliss, Walker, and Xaus. Ruben passed Walker on the third lap, and after three laps put his 999F05 Ducati in front of the works 999F06 of Bayliss for second place. Xaus was able to stay in second place until lap thirteen, where the absence of a sophisticated traction control unit started to tell on the tyres and Bayliss went past him. Xaus had to slow his pace, while Bayliss was free to catch up on Haga, passed him on lap nineteen and went for the win in front of the Japanese rider. A bad race for Corser, who fell on the opening laps. In race 2 it was down to Haga and Bayliss once again, with the Japanese rider all over the back of Troy's exhausts. At one point Bayliss let past Haga and studied him for an entire lap. On the following lap he went back in the lead and quickly pulled out a good gap between him and the Yamaha rider who was able to maintain a good pace, but not enough to prevent another Bayliss double.

2005 - The Ducati factory team was having a low-key season, but their resurgence came in the European round at Silverstone. Despite being only third and seventh on the grid, Laconi and Toseland managed to win respectively the first and second race. In race 1 Corser tried to pull away, chased by Haga, but once Laconi was able to dispose of Walker it was clear that he was a force to be reckoned with. He recorded the fastest lap on lap 9 and caught the leaders on lap 11. Haga didn't resist long and had to concede second place on the following lap, then it was Corser's turn. The Australian fought fiercely and Laconi was able to conquer first place for good only on lap 16. In the meantime Toseland had snatched third place while Kagayama fell and Haga was forced to slow down and eventually retire in the final laps with fuel pump failure. In race 2 the story was exactly the same, with the only change being that it was the Toseland who did what Laconi had done in race 1. The Corser-Haga duel lasted for the first eleven laps, but then Toseland stormed in, caught them by lap 12 and with a couple of passes on laps 16 and 17 took the lead, leaving Corser in second and Haga in third.