The International Disciplinary Court will deal with this case in due time.

Team SBK Ducati Alstare in collaboration with Team Barni Racing have come to an agreement that will see Italian rider Niccolò Canepa participate as a wildcard in the Superbike category this weekend. Canepa, who is currently leading the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup with Team Barni Racing, is available to compete in the Superbike category this weekend as the Stock bikes do not race at the UK circuit. The Ducati Alstare and Barni Racing teams are therefore pleased to announce that Canepa will join official Ducati Superbike riders Checa and Badovini for this fifth round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship.

Team SBK Ducati Alstare and Badovini took part in a positive day's testing at the Mugello circuit last Tuesday. Ducati's development team and Niccolò Canepa, also present, carried out some tests which continued into Wednesday, giving Canepa the chance to build confidence with the 1199 Panigale in its Superbike configuration in preparation for the UK event. During these sessions both riders tested new traction control settings and various set-ups that gave encouraging results.

Niccolò Canepa: "I enjoyed testing at Mugello and got on very well with the bike and so I'm really pleased to have this opportunity to ride the 1199 Panigale with Team Ducati Alstare at Donington. I want to thank Francis Batta of Ducati Alstare, Ernesto Marinelli and Ducati and of course my own team, Barni Racing and manager Marco Barnabò for coming together and arranging this. I hope to be able to pay them back by scoring some solid results during these important races."

After the paralysis suffered by former Kawasaki Racing Team rider Joan Lascorz, an online auction of Tom Sykes' specially painted '17 Power For Lascorz' crash helmet was won by British couple, and long-time Tom Sykes fans, Colin and Sharon Williams. The winning bid of £8,100UK (€9,702 Euros at that time), was passed onto Joan Lascorz to aid his rehabilitation process and, as part of the prize, Colin and Sharon were invited into the heart of the KRT squad at the recent Monza World Superbike race weekend.

Colin Williams was blown away by the experience of becoming part of the team itself for the Monza round, and the couple's weekend was rounded off by receiving two massive 'goody bags' of Kawasaki and racing team merchandise to take home as a set of souvenirs of a memorable weekend away. Said Colin, shortly before watching Tom Sykes score two fabulous podiums on raceday, "This has been an unbelievable race weekend. It is like rock and roll for us and I feel lost for words. The experience of coming to the race as guests of the official Kawasaki team is something else."

"We got what we asked for in bidding for and winning the Lascorz helmet," he added, "but at Monza we did not expect any of this and, to be fair, it was not simply about owning the helmet. Our 21-year-old son Andrew has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair, so we are very aware of the realities of disability. We followed the Kawasaki team at first because of Tom, but when we found out that Joan had been seriously hurt in a testing accident and, as events unfolded, paralysed, it does have an impact on how you feel."

"Sharon and myself are touched that there is such a level of concern for Joan's welfare and delighted that the money went to such a good cause. Of course, we both wish Joan all the best for his future. For us it has truly been the experience of a lifetime. We have the helmet at home in pride of pace and literally hundreds of happy memories of a weekend we will never, ever forget."

Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma Aprilia) bounced back - following two difficult rounds - in Monza World Superbike Round 4 to secure a top-5 finish in Race 2, after the promising Season Opener at Phillip Island. The Italian rider and his team had a tough challenge in finding a good set-up for their RSV4, so they decided to go back to the one they used in the Australian round. Fabrizio reckons the drastic changes made on the bike settings ended up working against them, but now that the feeling with the bike is back he's looking forward for the next round of the Championship, scheduled for May 24-26 at Donington Park.

"We found a good set-up at the last minute" said Michel Fabrizio "during the warm-up, it's a shame that we couldn't qualify in a better position for the races because, on a track like Monza, if you don't stick with the front runners from lap 1 it gets difficult to catch up. In the previous rounds of Aragon and Assen we had some hard time because we changed too much on the bike set-up, it's still a new bike for both me and the team so we need to work step by step in order to improve our performance. I hope to continue at from where we left off at Monza, I really like Donington Park despite my only podium finish in 2009."

"I'm flying to UK tonight and join Leon Haslam until Donington Park" said Michael van der Mark. "I'll be using the hyperbaric chamber and do physiotherapy to speed up the healing and recover as much as possible before the next round. It won't be an easy weekend, not only for the injury but also for the fact that I've never raced there, so I will have to learn the track. I'm confident everything will be OK, though, and I'm looking forward to be back on track."

"I really needed this win" said Lorenzo Savadori "not just because it was my home track, but after what happened in the first two rounds. In Aragon I made a silly mistake while I was catching up with the leaders and in Assen I had a collision at the start that cut me off from podium contention. I feel the bike has improved and I want to thank the team for their hard work. We still need to work a bit on the chassis but I'm already very comfortable riding it. I wish we raced at Donington as well, because it's going to be a long way for us until our next round at Portimao, it's hard to wait after such a good result."

Maiden win on home soil for Marco Melandri: up to now the BMW rider had run eleven races on Italian tracks (including also Misano and Imola) but hadn't been able to climb on the highest step of the podium in his home country. This was also the first BMW win in Monza, at their eighth race here.

This was the eleventh Superbike win for Melandri, the same of Stephane Mertens, Regis Laconi and Ruben Xaus, at the eighteenth all-time spot. With the podium in race 2, now Marco counts 30 podiums (out of 50 races completed), the same of Giancarlo Falappa and Jonathan Rea (19th all-time). Melandri didn't record a double podium finish since the Russia races, back in august last year, when he was equally first and second and was able to take the championship lead;

Five seems to be a lucky number for Melandri: he scored his last 5 wins starting from the fifth grid spot.

Eugene Laverty continues to impress in Monza: five races and five podium finishes, with three wins among them. In the entire history of the World Championship only three riders were able to record a higher number of races with a 100% podium record in the same track: Max Biaggi, with six podiums out of six races run in Losail (the track of his winning Superbike debut, back in 2007), Stephane Mertens, same value in Brainerd and Colin Edwards, also with a six out of six in Oschersleben (five wins and a second place). Eugene for the first time in his career was able to nail three podium finishes: he adds to the Monza ones the win in race two in Assen.

After the second and third places in Monza, now Tom Sykes counts twenty podiums: for the first time he nails a string of five. He climbs on the podium since Aragon, race two. Tom is the first Kawasaki rider to score a double podium finish in Monza since Akira Yanagawa, who was twice third in the 2001 races.

For the first time this season Davide Giugliano was able to finish both races: he retired for a mechanical problem in Phillip Island in race 1, stopped with an empty tank in Aragon in race two and fell in Assen, Race 2.

Marco Melandri in race one recorded the new highest average race speed for a Superbike race: 201.814 km/h, beating the existing one, 201.330 km/h set by Troy Bayliss in 2000 in Hockenheim.

QUALIFYING

Tom Sykes is the first rider to post a pole at an average lap speed higher than 205 kph: his lap record, 1'41.223, equals to 205.459 kph, and beats the existing one, set by Biaggi in 2011, 1'41.745 (204.405 kph).

With his maiden Monza pole, Sykes now has set pole in ten different tracks: in the ones present in the 2013 calendar from last year, he didn't score pole only in Moscow (2nd), Nurburgring (2nd) and Silverstone (8th). The rider who scored the highest number of poles in different tracks is Troy Corser: he started first in 18 circuits. Bayliss (15) and Fogarty (13) are second and third in this ranking.

Tom Sykes started from the 20th time from the front row, reaching Michel Fabrizio at the 20th all-time spot: in 2012 and 2013 he missed on a front-row spot only twice: in Silverstone last year, eighth, and in Australia this year (fourth).

Sylvain Guintoli was back on the front row after a wait that started in August last year (Silverstone).

Race 2 final result for Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Sylvain Guintoli is still to be considered as provisional, as after the chequered flag the Aprilia Racing Team requested the Race Direction to analyse last Tom Sykes' lap, who ran off track, while entering Turn 5 - using the run off area - and rejoined by maintaining his 3rd position and same pace. The appeal by Aprilia was upheld and after Sykes was penalised with one position place penalty, the Kawasaki Racing Team appealed to the FIM Stewards' Panel.

Following an analysis of race footage and sector times by Sykes, preceding rider Melandri and following rider Guintoli, decided to reinstate Tom Sykes third in classification. Therefore, this might not be the final verdict, as a further appeal could be lodged by the works Aprilia Team, this time to the International Disciplinary Court (within 5 days) that will eventually take the final decision on it.