09-13 Italy – Misano – WorldSBK Italy (1): Rea shoots everyone in Misano – KAWASAKI Occasions

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WorldSBK Italy (1): Rea shoots everyone in Misano

09-13 Italy - Misano - WorldSBK Italy (1): Rea shoots everyone in Misano - KAWASAKI Occasions

Deprived of Superpole this morning by his team-mate "Major Tom" Sykes, Jonathan Rea largely dominated the first Superbike round this afternoon at Misano. Davies limits the damage by finishing second ahead of an impressive Laverty and an exciting Van der Mark…

Only tenth on the timesheet on Friday night, Tom Sykes confirmed his status as "Mister Superpole" this morning in Superpole 2, setting Misano’s new record (1 ‘33.640). No.66 English Ninja signs his third pole in four races, his fourth this season and the 46th of his career.

More impressive still, "Major Tom" obtains a seventh pole in a row on Ducati lands and thus remains the only rider on the field to have signed the Superpole at Misano! Sykes also becomes the first WorldSBK driver to obtain seven poles on the same track … Too bad the qualifiers do not bring any points !

Third of the first day of free practice – marked by a FP3 session "fallen into the water" – Jonathan Rea was only beaten by his teammate in the last moments of SP2 … and only 33 thousandths second! The triple world champion and – wide – leader of the championship therefore starts from an excellent second place on the Italian grid..

Six tenths of a second behind the two official Kawasaki (!) Rank Eugene Laverty and his Aprilia n ° 50, to the delight of the tifosis. Ducati leads second place … thanks to its "independent" driver Xavi Fores! The factory Panigales are far on the grid, but not lagging behind….

Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri are relegated to the third row ahead – the factious! – Jordi Torres and his MV Agusta certainly, but only turned a quarter of a second slower than Laverty … Lorenzo Savadori slips his second Aprilia "Factory" in the middle of the second row, just in front of our Loris Baz and his BMW n ° 76.

As a reminder, the Italian BMW team Althea and Jordi Torres recorded their best result in Misano in the first round (4th) and fought for the podium in the second round … Hopefully our compatriot can do the same this year !

Finally, we would like to point out the presence of Niccolo Canepa in 16th place in "his" grid, at the controls of a third factory R1 which carries the n ° 94, a nod to the GMT team for which the driver is racing in the world championship. Endurance.

Departure : Jonathan Rea starts stronger than Tom Sykes and dives in front of his teammate in the first sequence of the circuit. Laverty retains his third place ahead of an extremely well started Chaz Davies, from the third row !

Baz also made sparks … in the literal sense unfortunately: the French driver lost the front of his BMW n ° 76 in turn n ° 2 and slipped off the track, fortunately without being hit. The race continues despite everything for his twenty opponents…

The two Kawasaki escape in the not really straight first row of the Adriatic circuit. Laverty and Davies nevertheless remain in the aspiration of the official ZX-10RR and train with exu the rest of the peloton composed of Xavi Fores, Lorenzo Savadori, Michael van der Mark, Jordi Torres, Marco Melandri, Leon Camier, etc..

The three-time world champion and wide leader of the provisional finishes this first round two tenths earlier than Sykes. Laverty and Davies try to stay in touch. Their pursuers, on the other hand, cannot follow the tempo of the leaders in the 2nd round.

In the peloton, "Magic Michael" distinguished himself by hoisting his factory R1 n ° 60 – prepared not far from Imola, at Yamaha Racing headquarters – in front of two pure Italian: the F3 "Reparto Corse" n ° 81 by Jordi Torres then the RSV4 "Factory" by Lorenzo Savadori! Melandri imitates VDM and Torres his 8th place.

Camier still closes the Top 10, just ahead of Alex Lowes that we expected much higher … Leandro Mercado, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Michael Rinaldi and Niccolo Canepa (!) Are in the points. Loris Baz is officially out of the race … and certainly out of him! He must turn immediately to the second round, in 24 hours.

On the 5th lap, the ruthless "JR" was just a second ahead of .. Laverty who won over Sykes on first braking! Quicker than the Ninja n ° 66, the Aprilia n ° 50 is now targeting the "Number One". Faster than Tom also, Chaz Davies climbs on the podium at the level of – very – heavy braking of the Quercia.

Frustrated at not fighting at the forefront, Alex Lowes made a mistake in the same turn n ° 8 (Quercia). Victim of a simple "low-side", the winner of the second round of Brno returns to the attack, in last position. A minute later, Torres also fell, in curve n ° 3, and started again behind Lowes…

These two falls are Canepa’s business: the "Franco" Italian driver of GMT94 is 12th on the 8th lap! Jake Gagne, Michael Rinaldi and Roman Ramos also enter the points. But there are 13 laps to go: Lowes and Torres can still come back ?

In front, Jonathan Rea continues the laps tirelessly. The triple "Number One" slowly but surely increases its lead over Eugene Laverty. The gaps are also steadily increasing between the Irish driver and his own Welsh pursuer, Chaz Davies. And it is the same between the Ducati n ° 7 and the Kawasaki n ° 66 of Tom Sykes…

Stunned by the sun and the lack of a fight for the podium, the spectators are kept awake by the ascent of Michael van den Mark on "Major Tom" precisely. The Yamaha rider whips his R1 to reach his target. VDM reached it on the 13th lap and didn’t need to force much to win on the brakes in the Carro hairpin at the end of the course..

A big second behind Sykes now, drives the solitary Savadori … But the n ° 32 Aprilia is being chased by the n ° 12 and n ° 33 Ducati, Fores and Melandri who have not left each other since the middle of the race. Camier rolls two seconds further. Mercado, 10th, is relegated to 12 seconds from Honda rider n ° 2 … and 25 from Kawasaki rider n ° 1 !

With five laps to go, Eugene Laverty widens in the last corner. On the lookout, Chaz Davies comes back to his level and easily overtakes him by launching himself much harder in the short straight line of the pits! Ten seconds later, his teammate Lorenzo Savadori suffered the same loss of form and was overtaken by Xavi Fores on his "independent" Ducati..

Marco Melandri did not take long to join his compatriot Sava-pas-du-tout-dori and passed three laps from the end. Witness to Lorenzo’s rout, Leon Camier does everything possible to reduce the gap (one second) that separates him from eighth place.

In front, Jonathan Rea parades in front of the Italian public and wins his ninth success this season, the 63rd of his career. More remarkable still, Rea gives Kawasaki its 119th victory in World Superbike: it is as much as Honda, second most victorious manufacturer in the discipline after Ducati. !

The second driver of the 2018 championship, Chaz Davies, crosses the finish line three seconds after the leader / winner. Could the Ducati rider have won if he hadn’t started from third place? Mystery and Pirelli Ball. Tomorrow it will start from the same line … But in front of Rea !

Maintained under pressure until the end by Michael van der Mark, Eugene Laverty finally manages to keep third place! The Aprilia rider therefore climbs on his second podium in a row and steals from the Turkish rookie Toprak Razgatlioglu (11th in the race) his eighth place in the provisional.

Fourth in the first round therefore, VDM consoles himself by scraping two points from Tom Sykes in the championship. In addition, Yamaha rider n ° 60 is offered pole position for tomorrow! Finally, we congratulate Niccolo Canepa who finished "his" first race in an honorable 12th place..

Result of the 1st WSBK 2018 race in Misano

09-13 Italy - Misano - WorldSBK Italy (1): Rea shoots everyone in Misano - KAWASAKI Occasions

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