The 2012 SBK season was the setting for a triumphant story: Max Biaggi was off to a grand start, winning the opening round in Australia. Max led in the standings for almost the entire championship, forced to follow from second place only after the Moscow round. But already in the next round he had returned to the lead, winning at the Nürburgring on an historic day for Aprilia, placing three RSV4 bikes on the podium in Race 1 (team mate Eugene Laverty and Chaz Davies on the ParkinGo Aprilia joined Max) and two in Race 2 with Davies winning and Laverty in second with Max riding an exciting comeback.

For the final round at Magny-Cours Biaggi arrived at the top of the Rider standings with a 30.5 point advantage over Tom Sykes (Kawasaki), 38.5 points ahead of Marco Melandri (BMW) and a solid 68.5 lead over Carlos Checa (Ducati). In the Manufacturer standings Aprilia arrived at the last track with a strong 28.5 advantage over BMW, 47.5 ahead of Ducati, 66 in front of Kawasaki, 152 over Honda and 292 more than Suzuki.

 

Poor weather and tenth place on the starting grid were no small complication for Max's last assault. In Race 1 Max had a sliding crash and retired from the race after a few laps. Sykes (who crossed the line third) and Melandri (second) drew dangerously close in the standings. The world championship came on the last turn of the last race: Max was fifth, a placing which allowed him to maintain a minimum advantage over Sykes, and he was Superbike World Champion for the second time. Aprilia is World Manufacturer SBK champion.

 

For Max Biaggi this is the sixth world title in an extraordinary career. And of six championship wins, 5 (three in 250 and two in SBK) arrived on an Aprilia bike.

For Aprilia the manufacturer title (the second one in SBK) takes the total number of world championships won to 51.

 

And the Piaggio Group, which includes other historic competition motorcycle brands within the group such as Gilera, Moto Guzzi and Derbi, reaches the spectacular number of 101 world championship titles.

With 101 World Championships in its collection (51 Aprilia, 15 Moto Guzzi, 21 Derbi, 14 Gilera) the Piaggio Group is the all-time most victorious European motorcycle group.