05-13 Italy – Imola – WorldSBK Italy (2): Rea equals “King” Carl Fogarty and his 59 victories – KAWASAKI Opportunities

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WorldSBK Italy (2): Rea equals "King" Carl Fogarty and his 59 victories

05-13 Italy - Imola - WorldSBK Italy (2): Rea equals & quot; King & quot; Carl Fogarty and his 59 victories - Pre-Owned KAWASAKI

Magistral at Imola yesterday, Jonathan Rea clinched a superb double this afternoon in Italy. Better than Chaz Davies on the track, the "Number One" Kawasaki equals another Ducati rider in WSBK annals: quadruple champion Carl Fogarty, winner of 59 Superbike races.

Solo winner of the first Italian round on Saturday, Jonathan Rea is forced this Sunday to place his ZX-10RR on the third row on the grid, behind his neighbors on the podium: his teammate Tom Sykes and the local of the stage Marco Melandri.

Arrived fourth yesterday, Chaz Davies inherits pole position. The DUcati n ° 7 driver could not have dreamed of better to try to break the impressive series of doubles achieved at Imola: Checa in 2010 and 2012, Tom Sykes in 2013, Jonathan Rea in 2014 and 2015, Chaz Davies Himself in 2016 and 2017 !

Fourth in the scratch on Saturday and again first independent driver, Xavi Fores starts from the first row, ahead of Michael van der Mark. Second row is Michael Rinaldi, Lorenzo Savadori and Leon Haslam. Loris Baz regains his third place, behind Toprak Razgatlioglu and Eugene Laverty.

Departure : Rinaldi got off to a better start than his teammate Davies and took the lead in the race in front of his home crowd! The Italian leads in front of Davies, then Fores, Van der Mark who overtakes Melandri from the first sequence, Savadori, Sykes, Rea, Haslam, Lowes, etc..

Rinaldi attacked very hard in the first lap and gave himself a slight lead (three tenths of a second) over Davies. The peloton is a few lengths further still: Fores is half a second from n ° 7 … In the background, Rea produces his effort and does not hesitate to push Melandri a little in the Alta Variant at the end of the 2nd tower.

The next lap, the ruthless "JR" gains a new position by winning over Van der Mark at – big – braking of the Tosa hairpin. In front, Chaz steals the reins of the race from the other Michael (Rinaldi) in the final chicane of the Italian layout. Jonathan passes in front of Xavi then the same Michael at the start of the 4th lap…

One lap later, Jonathan puts the pressure on Chaz! The two men – very, very strong – of the Superbike World Championship isolated themselves at the forefront. Fores takes the lead of the peloton then made up of Rinaldi, Melandri, Van der Mark and Sykes. Torres, Haslam, Razgatlioglu, Lowes and Laverty are fighting for eighth place. Baz is fourteenth.

On the back of Rea, Davies clocked the fastest lap in the 4th lap. The "Lucky Number Seven" and the triple "Number One" roll more than half a second faster than their pursuers. Xavi and his private Ducati n ° 12 hold high the official Ducati n ° 33, Yamaha n ° 60 and Kawasaki n ° 66 !

At the controls of his Ducati "Junior" and nevertheless factory, Michael Rinaldi seems to be running out of steam little by little. On the 7th lap, the young Italian gave up half a second to the riders who preceded him … and three tenths to Jordi Torres who was two short seconds behind him, and was accompanied by Alex Lowes !

In front, Davies and Rea chain the laps like metronomes. On his Panigale, "Chazie" perhaps hears the vocalizations of the ZX-10RR posted in its rear wheel … But that is not certain, as the Ducati is making a fuss! Anyway, the "Welsh Dragon" does not ignite: he wisely waits for "Johnny" to light the fire….

Melandri and Van der Mark crash together, right at the halfway point, in Rivazza’s final double straight. The public does not have time to dwell on the abandonment of their Marco: Rea attacks Davies at the start of the 10th lap! Kawasaki and Ducati intersect in Traguardo then Tamburello before resuming their positions.

The fight starts up again in the 11th lap: Jonathan tries to accelerate in the not-very-straight line in front of the pits, then dives under Chaz under Tosa’s braking but is packed inside and has to stealthily straighten and return the gas !

Five seconds behind the shocking duo (s), Xavi Fores must also fight, but at a distance, against Tom Sykes! The two men run scrupulously in the same lap times. Rinaldi, placed two seconds behind the Ninja n ° 66, turns just as quickly and thus remains safe from Jordi Torres, Alex Lowes, Leon Haslam and Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Seven laps to go, Jonathan Rea overtook Chaz Davies in the tight Variante Alta chicane. This time, the Ducati rider does not manage to retaliate with a tac-au-tac … The Kawasaki n ° 1 completed a record lap under 1 ’47 and promptly released its Italian rival.

If the first two places on the podium already seem awarded, this is not the case for the third! Fores is gradually overtaken by Sykes … The English Ninja easily overtakes the Spanish driver and his Panigale when accelerating in front of the pits. There are only three laps left to go.

Five seconds behind the private Ducati n ° 12, the factory MV Agusta n ° 81 precedes the official Yamaha n ° 22 by a few lengths, then the Ducati Junior n ° 21 and the “independent” Kawasaki n ° 54. Haslam who was fighting to stay in contact with this group comes out in the gravel and must give up.

Laverty and his RSV4 Factory roll alone in ninth position. An encouraging place for the Irish driver who had not driven since his accident during the second round of the 2018 championship in Aragon. The situation is a little more frustrating for our Loris Baz, in great shape but restrained by the electronics of his BMW: the French n ° 76 is fighting against Mercado for ninth place.

Thirty seconds ahead of our (hard) compatriot, Jonathan Rea is heading towards an unstoppable victory: this is the 59th of the career of this exceptional World Superbike rider … The three-time Northern Irish world champion thus equals the absolute record that Englishman Carl Fogarty has held since Hockenheim in 1999 !

Thanks to his third double at Imola, the "Number One" of the official Kawasaki team sets a new record: 17 doubles in WorldSBK, unprecedented in the category! More importantly, Rea scores 25 more points and consolidates his lead over Chaz Davies, second in this second round at Imola.

The Kawasaki rider n ° 1 totals 209 points (out of 250 maximum) against 162 for the n ° 7 Ducati. Third in the race this afternoon, Tom Sykes takes advantage of the collision between Michael van der Mark and Marco Melandri to settle in the provisional Top 3 (137 points).

Jordi Torres, author of a good fifth place behind the excellent Xavi Fores, joins Loris Baz at the bottom of the World Top 10: the only MV Agusta driver shares with his replacement in the BMW Althea team the same number of points (52 ). See you in Donington Park in two weeks to follow the rest of the World Superbike Championship !

Result of the 2nd WSBK 2018 race in Imola

05-13 Italy - Imola - WorldSBK Italy (2): Rea equals & quot; King & quot; Carl Fogarty and his 59 victories - Pre-Owned KAWASAKI

05-13 Italy - Imola - WorldSBK Italy (2): Rea equals & quot; King & quot; Carl Fogarty and his 59 victories - Pre-Owned KAWASAKI

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