WSBK Malaysia (1): double for Melandri and Guintoli

Marked by the falls of Baz, Sykes and Lowes in the first chicane, the first Superbike race in Sepang crowned the factory Aprilia of Marco Melandri and Sylvain Guintoli. The two former MotoGP riders easily win ahead of Eugene Laverty and his Suzuki. First Superbike race Sylvain Guintoli starts ahead of Toni Elias, Tom Sykes…

Marked by the falls of Baz, Sykes and Lowes in the first chicane, the first Superbike race in Sepang crowned the factory Aprilia of Marco Melandri and Sylvain Guintoli. The two former MotoGP riders easily win ahead of Eugene Laverty and his Suzuki.

First Superbike race

Sylvain Guintoli starts in front of Toni Elias, Tom Sykes … But Loris Baz loses the lead in the middle of the chicane, sweeps his teammate Sykes who takes Alex Lowes with him and forces Jonathan Rea to leave the track! The "Number One" gets up by gripping the right wrist…

Chaz Davies climbed to third position ahead of Marco Melandri, Eugene Laverty, David Salom, Chris Iddon, Jeremy Guarnoni, Leon Haslam, Ayrton Badovini, etc. Romain Lanusse is 17th, Fabien Foret 21st … and Rea is 23rd !

Guintoli takes a small lead in the first round. In the second lap, Davies passed Elias in the winding but was passed over in both stretches by Elias, then by Melandri! The official Aprilia attacks the private at the start of the 3rd lap and manages to keep her new second place.

Marco Melandri raises the tone in the next two loops and drops Toni Elias, Chaz Davies … and Eugene Laverty who keeps his GSX-R in the leading group. The hunting party is already more than 13 seconds away: it consists of Haslam, Giugliano (hot, because feverish!), Rea (yes, already!), Salom, Iddon, Guarnoni and company.

The two factory RSV4s are only half a second apart on lap 7 and are about to fight for victory … in a few loops? Davies struggles on the handlebars of his Panigale to dominate Elias and his RSV4 … But "Chazie" achieves this by taking trajectories that better correspond to his mount.

Foret and his ZX-10R returned to the pits shortly before halfway through the race, soon joined by Claudio Corti and the only MV Agusta. On the track, Jeremy Guarnoni is fighting with Leon Camier for the gain of 11th place. Romain Lanusse occupies 17th place.

In the 9th lap, Eugene Laverty overtook Toni Elias: the Irishman was just a second behind the Welshman Davies and his Panigale n ° 7. Twelve seconds behind, Giugliano and Haslam continue to fight for 6th place, under the nose of Jonathan Rea.

At the head of the race, Melandri conscientiously follows Guintoli and waits until the very end of the 10th lap to dive inside his teammate and take control of this first race! Twenty-three seconds behind, Rea climbs to sixth position ahead of Haslam and Giugliano.

Five laps from the end, Elias brakes Laverty on the first – very heavy – braking of the Malaysian track, but Suzuki n ° 58 returns to Aprilia n ° 24 in the following sequence. Not far ahead, Davies remains focused on his goal: to land a new podium on his official Ducati !

The 13th lap (out of 16 in total) is launched and Melandri can not distance his teammate Guintoli. Davies gives up his third place to Laverty and fights to keep the fourth against Elias! Rea isolated himself in 6th position ahead of Haslam and Giugliano. First Evo driver, Salom is well ahead of Camier, Guarnoni, Badovini, Canepa, etc..

In the penultimate lap, Marco manages to grab a few lengths on Sylvain, whom the Italian maintains until the finish line. Aprilia official riders n ° 33 and n ° 50 sign a first double at Sepang ahead of the unexpected Suzuki n ° 58 de Laverty.

Davies obtains a superb fourth place on the handlebars of his factory 1199 Panigale, just ahead of Elias … alias the third "old" of the Intercontinental Circus on Aprilia! David Salom once again ranks first driver in the Evo category.

Congratulations to Jeremy Guarnoni who finished 11th and to Romain Lanusse who scored his first point in the Superbike world championship. They can thank Baz for cleaning up the first chicane … Will Loris make up for it in the second round: to be continued on Site, stay connected !

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