WSBK Qatar (1): glory to the god Rea, sparkling in the desert
Author of a new pole record, Jonathan Rea eclipsed his opponents during the first night round of the WorldSBK 2017 in Losail. In the shadow of the three-time champion, Chaz Davies scores 20 important points against Tom Sykes, distant sixth. Bravo to Guintoli and Guarnoni who finished 8th and 11th !
Departure : Poleman Jonathan Rea got off to an excellent start, unlike Alex Lowes who was overtaken by Tom Sykes during acceleration … Yamaha rider n ° 22 lost under braking against Kawasaki n ° 66. Xavi Fores is ahead of the two official Ducatis of Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri, the Yamaha of Michael van der Mark, the Aprilia Factory of Eugene Laverty and Lorenzo Savadori as well as the private Kawasaki of Sylvain Guintoli.
On the ZX-10RR, which he was just discovering, Jeremy Guarnoni completed the 1st lap in 17th position. At the forefront, Rea is already half a second ahead of the duo Sykes and Lowes. Fores couldn’t resist Davies’ braking at the end of the straight but stayed ahead of his colleague Melandri….
Rea keeps spinning half a second faster than Sykes and Lowes! Van der Mark applied to follow the three Ducatis while Laverty and Savadori let go in the second lap. Guintoli cedes his Top 10 to Jordi Torres on the # 81 BMW, and is instantly put under pressure by Raffaele de Rosa on the # 35 BMW…
At the start of the 3rd lap, Lowes brakes Sykes and climbs on the second step of the podium! The Kawasaki rider finds himself at the mercy of his great rival in the championship: Davies, who fiercely attacks his opponent – on the track as in the championship – then defeats Lowes…
Tom Sykes – whose engine failed yesterday in FP2! – is passed on the 4th lap in the long straight line of the Qatari route … by the Panigale R of Xavi Fores, "private" perhaps, but no "Vmax" obviously! Melandri drives the point home a few moments later: "Minor Tom" finds himself sixth, just ahead of Van der Mark.
Alone in the lead, Jonathan Rea drops – on purpose? – pace but continues to widen the gap: at the end of the 6th round, the three-time world champion is almost three seconds ahead of the potential 2017 vice-world champion, Chaz Davies. The latter must watch his rear: Xavi Fores is in a big day !
While Lowes is doing his best not to completely lose contact with these Ducati n ° 7 and n ° 12, his teammate Van der Mark falls at high speed! Coming out of one of the circuit’s very fast rights, the front tire of his R1 hit the rear tire of the # 66 Kawa. The penalty is immediate: the R1 finishes this first round in the gravel trap … VDM retires.
Halfway through the race, the ruthless "JR" increased his lead to 3.6 seconds. "Chazie" on the other hand, does not manage to outrun Fores, quite the contrary: the Spaniard allows himself to point the end of his fairing on certain heavy braking! Lowes comes closer, Melandri hangs on…
The 11th lap was marked by the abandonment of Fores, betrayed by his Ducati, and by the falls of De Rosa and then of Lowes! Guintoli, who was racing ahead of De Rosa, is now in 7th position. But Torres is in his aspiration and goes ahead on the 12th lap … Guarnoni occupies a respectable 11th place.
On lap 12, Jonathan Rea was almost four seconds ahead of Chaz Davies and more than seven over Marco Melandri. If the podium seems sealed with five laps from the end, the next three places are far from being distributed: the two Aprilia n ° 32 and 50 are based on the Kawasaki n ° 66 !
Passed in front of Savadori at the very start of the 14th lap, Laverty easily passed Sykes. Unable to retaliate, the 2013 WSBK champion does not react when "Sava" attacks him a moment later: Tom loses big points here against Chaz, still firmly posted in second position..
After his first slide, Alex Lowes fell a second time during this first Qatari round. This time, his R1 is too shaken for him to charge again. Alex joins his teammate Michael in the Yamaha box. Fortunately for the Blues, there is one final race to go this season: tomorrow night !
On the podium last year with "his" R1, Sylvain Guintoli was overtaken by Jordi Torres at the very end of the race. At the controls of a Ninja that he is just starting to understand, our Ninja n ° 05 still finishes this first round in eighth place, just ahead of Leon Camier and his factory MV Agusta..
Much faster than his comrades, in Superpole as a race, Jonathan Rea celebrates his 15th victory this season with a majestic rear wheel in the home stretch. This is his very first success in Qatar and shares this great first with his manufacturer Kawasaki !
By pocketing a probable double tomorrow night, the "god Rea" would beat the record for points scored in a World Superbike season: Edwards had scored 552 points during the memorable 2002 season which also included 13 events. For the record, Troy Bayliss had scored 541 points … the same year !
For once, Chaz Davies is overwhelmed by his second place. He is delighted with the third place obtained by his teammate Melandri at Ducati, but also with the group shot of Noale’s cousins - the Aprilias driven by Laverty and Savadori! – in the Top 5 which removes precious points from Tom Sykes, only sixth tonight. No.7 Ducati is now 10 points ahead of No.66 Kawasaki…
Finally, congratulations to Jeremy Guarnoni who takes a formidable 11th place: the Superstock 1000 rider proves to his Pedercini team that he is perfectly reliable. His best time is down compared to these rivals in the Top 10 … But "Jey" lacks speed because he lacks driving: strongly tomorrow therefore, that the n ° 11 is still improving !
Result of the first WSBK 2017 race in Losail
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