WSBK – WSBK Spain: Davies wins, Guintoli manages, Foret shines! –

WSBK Spain: Davies wins, Guintoli manages, Foret shines !

WSBK - WSBK Spain: Davies wins, Guintoli manages, Foret shines! -

Chaz Davies flew over the second round of the World Superbike 2013 this Sunday in Aragon! But Sylvain Guintoli did not fail: he pockets many and precious points that keep him at the top of the world championship.

Chaz Davies flew over the second round of the World Superbike 2013 this Sunday in Aragon! But Sylvain Guintoli did not fail: he pockets many and precious points that keep him at the top of the world championship.

This midday during the first SBK round, Chaz Davies began by warding off fate: unlike Laverty and Sykes, forced to retire while they were driving in the lead, the BMW rider had a solid race and won. in front of Guintoli and Melandri…

Even stronger in the second round, the Welsh rider n ° 19 signed a masterful double, again ahead of our beloved Frenchie, "Guinters"! Tom Sykes had to fight hard against Davide Giugliano to climb on the third step.

Finally, the Supersport race in Aragon was as eventful as the two Superbike rounds! Sofuoglu and Lowes out of the race, it is Foret who wins and propels himself to the top of the championship, ahead of rookie Van den Mark…

First Superbike race

Just before the red lights come on above the runway, Mark Aitchison’s 1198 comes to a stop! The Ducati of the Effenbert team is evacuated in the paddocks … and leaves the pits.

Eugene Laverty took off the fastest from the starting grid and took the lead ahead of Tom Sykes, Chaz Davies, Sylvain Guintol and Davide Giugliano. Experienced Jonathan Rea and Marco Melandri are already ahead of Jules Cluzel and Loris Baz (8th and 9th), ahead of Leon Haslam. Leon just overtakes Loris in the first corners…

Laverty and Sykes take the lead while Davies and Guintoli make boots and gloves to stay in contact with the two leaders. Melandri passed Rea on braking at the end of the straight line, imitated by Baz who passed Haslam again. Checa also passes n ° 91 Honda and reaches the Top 10.

In the second lap, Chaz Davies is more and more pressing on Tom Sykes while Eugene Laverty grabs half a second from his two pursuers. Sylvain remained in fourth place, giving up a few lengths to the BMW n ° 19. Chaz precisely applied his braking at the end of the loooong straight line and took second place.

Sykes reacted quickly and regained his second place under braking from the pit straight line. The fight benefited Guintoli who redid the junction … But it also benefited the other official Aprilia, n ° 58, which hammered the point home by setting the best time on the track. Rea is still in fifth place and leads the peloton made up of Cluzel (!), Melandri, Baz, Checa and Giugliano.

In the 4th loop, Laverty is dropped off by Sykes and Davies! Guintoli in turn overtakes Eugene, who drives slowly … Aprilia electronics have just betrayed Eugene, and allows Sylvain to climb on the podium! The Irishman will resume – too late – the track, but will have the opportunity to take revenge in the second heat.

In the next loop, Sykes is also the victim of a technical glitch while leading the race! Chaz Davies therefore inherits a first place which seems cursed … Guintoli climbs to second position, four seconds ahead of Melandri.

The third step is however far from assured for the Hedgehog of Ravenna because in the wheel of the BMW n ° 33 are the Honda n ° 65 of Rea, the Kawasaki n ° 76 of Baz and the Suzuki n ° 16 of Cluzel. ! The Ducati n ° 7 of Checa is relegated to several lengths, in seventh position, far ahead of Aprilia n ° 34 of Giugliano and the Honda n ° 91 of Haslam. Fabrizio’s Aprilia n ° 84 completes the Top 10.

In front, Sylvain Guintoli remains in contact with Chaz Davies despite some untimely slips of his Aprilia and Marco Melandri gradually escapes from the peloton. Jonathan Rea remains in fourth position but Loris Baz is following him, on the lookout for the slightest error! Jules Cluzel fights to delay as much as possible the ascent of Davide Giugliano, passed in front of Carlos Checa.

Shortly before halfway through the race, Baz and his Ninja went on the attack: better out of the final curve of the layout, the Frenchman devoured Rea in the stretch of the pits and settled in fourth place. Giugliano produces the same lightning attack the next round on Cluzel.

Meanwhile, Chaz Davies keeps a lead of just over 3 seconds over Sylvain Guintoli. Marco Melandri is dangerously back on our favorite No.50: halfway, the Italian is only a big second behind the Frenchie.

Behind, the tone rises between four men: Rea, Baz and Cluzel are threatened by Giugliano! The private Aprilia goes up like a rocket and double blow after blow the Suzuki then the official Honda. Kawasaki’s 4-cylinder resists the phenomenal V4 better.

Melandri joined Guintoli on the thirteenth lap and wasted no time in posting his BMW in second position. Marco is 4.6 seconds behind his new teammate Chaz Davies. With this doubled potential, the Behème clan is in heaven, naturlich !

More than 7 seconds from Guintoli point Giugliano, harassed by Rea. These two men are closely followed by our national "Bazooka". Cluzel on the other hand slowly loses contact but does not deserve: this is his third race in WSBK after all !

Unable to keep pace with Melandri, Guintoli lets go of the Italian. Rid of his direct rivals in the championship, Sylvain would be wrong to tempt the devil, especially as his RSV4 lacks stability under acceleration. Davide Giugliano on the contrary whips his Aprilia to try to get rid of the bulky Johnny Rea…

New twist in the 17th lap: Melandri suddenly appears in fifth position! Off the track, the Italian has not lost everything and plunges his head behind his bubble, in the wheel of Giugliano and Rea. Baz is unfortunately not close enough to Marco to take his aspi and play the podium.

Melandri passed Rea at the end of the 18th lap and set off in pursuit of his young and fiery compatriot Giugliano. Accompanied by the tenacious Rea, the two Italians have not entirely given up the hope of reaching the second step of the podium: Sylvain is less than three seconds !

Chaz Davies continues his solo race and flies towards his first victory of the season. Strangely feverish on his bike, Sylvain Guintoli loses in the 18th loop almost a second on Melandri who has just grabbed third place and is again aiming for n ° 50…

The last lap is just a formality for Chaz Davies. Sylvain, on the other hand, was much warmer and crossed the finish line just in front of Melandri. Giugliano does not finish the race – lack of gasoline? – and cedes his fourth place to Jonathan Rea.

Loris Baz fulfills one of the missions he had given himself for this season: to finish in the Top 5 in the dry! Jules Cluzel obtains an equally meritorious 6th place, far ahead of Carlos Checa, Michel Fabrizio, Leon Haslam and Ayrton Badovini.

Sylvain Guintoli takes first place in the championship, but the French will have to improve his pace in the race to fight against his unlucky rivals in the first round is eager to catch up….

Supersport Race

Kenan Sofuoglu got off to a good start but Sam Lowes came out on top of the first corner. Very well started – for once! -, Fabien Foret does not point to 12th place after a few sequences … Florian Marino is doing better and is ranked sixth.

Very quickly, Michael van den Mark took the lead. At the end of the first loop, he was ahead of Sam Lowes, Riccardo Russo, Luca Scassa, Kevin Coghlan and Florian Marino. A superb fight begins between the three leading men while Foret goes up the peloton.

In the third lap, Kenan Sofuoglu returns to the stand: "No brakes" cowardly, annoyed, the three-time world champion. On the track, Lowes, Coghlan and Van den Mark whip their respective Yamaha, Kawasaki and Honda. Advantage "R6" in the fourth lap: Sam has a good second ahead of his pursuers.

The fastest man on the track is, however, our compatriot Fabien Foret: on the 6th lap, the Supersport champion (2002) and his Kawasaki took third place ahead of the Honda of rookie Van den Mark. Lowes and his Yamaha simplify Fabien’s task by widening at the start of the 7th lap !

Coghlan and his Ninja therefore jump on first place and benefit from nearly two seconds ahead of Foret and more than three over Van den Mark and Lowes. But the Kawa ‘n ° 88 did not stay in the lead for long: the Australian lost the front in the 8th loop and in turn gave up first place to Fabien Foret !

The halfway mark is crossed: Foret drives alone in the lead while Lowes and Van den Mark fight like ragpickers for second place, three seconds behind the Kawa ‘n ° 99. The peloton is still particularly dense: Russo, Antonelli, Marino, Zanetti, De Rosa, Scassa, Leonov, Ivanov and Kennedy all still play 4th place.

In the space of two laps, however, the face of the race changed: Foret was easily joined by Lowes while Van den Mark was still more than three seconds behind. Sam seems to procrastinate in the thirteenth lap and notices that Fabien’s Ninja moves a lot, especially when accelerating…

The Englishman launched a braking attack on the long straight back and regained the reins of the race. Fabien gives everything and stays in contact with Sam: he enters much stronger in certain curves, but comes out a little less calmly.

With four laps to go, the two leading men are almost five seconds ahead of Michael Van den Mark, and more than nine seconds over Russo, Antonelli and Scassa. Zanetti leads a second group composed of Marino, Leonov and De Rosa.

The duel for victory continues between the Kawa ‘of Foret and the Yam’ of Lowes. By attacking the pit straight for the penultimate time, the R6 does not take its turns! Foret shifts his ZX-6R and dislocates the unlucky one – one more in Aragon this Sunday! – Sam Lowes.

Fabien Foret made a final loop much quieter than expected and won the 16th victory of his career, his first this season. Reigning Superstock 600 champion Michael Van den Mark climbs to his second consecutive podium … in two races !

Luca Scassa completed the podium and ahead of three other Italian drivers: Antonelli, Russo and Zanetti. Our young compatriot Marino is absent from the ranking, unfortunately broke at the end of the course by De Rosa…

In the championship, Fabien Foret took advantage of the abandonment of his great rivals (Sofuoglu and Lowes) and his superb victory to take the lead. He is ahead of the impressive Michael Van den Mark by 2 points and the "ghost" Scassa by 12.

Second Superbike race

As in the first round, the yellow flags are waved at the very moment of departure! Jules Cluzel is evacuated from the grid but the red lights are slow to come on, the procedure is restarted … but Jules unfortunately cannot join his little comrades..

Eugene Laverty made a great new start and took the lead ahead of Tom Sykes, Chaz Davies, Sylvain Guintoli, Marco Melandri, Davide Giugliano, Jonathan Rea, Leon Haslam, Carlos Checa, Loris Baz and Alex Badovini. But Eugene fell after a few seconds and Iannuzo added to the confusion by exploding his engine moments later. !

The race – shortened to 19 laps due to Jules’ minor concern – continued despite everything and Sykes completed the first lap in the lead. Davies was still second when Guintoli launched an attack at the start of the second round but had to withdraw and regained his third place ahead of Melandri, Giugliano, Rea, Haslam and Checa. Baz is a little further in 9th place.

Tom tangles the brushes in the 3rd round and stumbles in the fourth position. Hyper at ease, Chaz engages the overdrive on his S1000RR n ° 19 and moves away from Sylvain who, on his Aprilia n ° 50, is a few lengths ahead of the chase group (Melandri, Sykes and Giugliano).

Jonathan Rea leads a second group of furious: Haslam, Baz, Checa and Cluzel dispute him for sixth place. At the end of the 6th lap, Johnny unfortunately had to abdicate due to a technical problem: the Honda n ° 65 returned to his box and only came out several minutes later..

On the track, while Chaz Davies and Sylvain Guintoli isolated themselves in first and second places respectively, Tom Sykes, Marco Melandri and Davide Giugliano never left a tire! In the 8th loop however, the Englishman manages to outrun the two Italians…

In the following lap, the private Aprilia n ° 34 slips under the official BMW n ° 33: Will Davide manage to climb up to Sykes and his 3rd place? Nine seconds behind the two transalpines, two Frenchmen are also bickering, for sixth place: Baz and Cluzel !

At the halfway point, the Coq Supersportif n ° 16 and Bazooka n ° 76 delight the public by leaving the big game, but at the same time allow Haslam to stay glued to their backsplashes! Checa on the other hand marked time.

While Davies continues his race flawlessly, Guintoli also ensures the show by drifting his Aprilia out of a curve! The Frenchman keeps his delay on Davies to less than four seconds: the equivalent of going off the track at the end of the straight line…

The fight for the third step of the podium is much more direct: Sykes and his Ninja ZX-10R must repel the attacks of the hot Giugliano and his RSV4 "Factory" no factory … Melandri has surrendered and circulates at four seconds of the duo, but has a comfortable lead over Baz and Cluzel (around 10 seconds).

The two young French people (Loris and Jules) calm things down between them and, in doing so, ward off the Haslam threat. The English rider is also passed at the end of the race by Carlos Checa: the Ducati rider courageously clings to 8th place on the handlebars of his 1199 Panigale..

Having started on hats, the race had a much calmer end: Chaz Davies tumbled alone in the lead on the last lap, accumulating five seconds ahead of Sylvain Guintoli and nearly eight seconds over Tom Sykes and Davide Giugliano.

The new BMW recruit signs his first double in World Superbike, ahead of Sylvain Guintoli who takes on the costume of Aprilia chief. Tom Sykes confirms his Australian injuries are a bad memory as he dominates dashing Davide Giugliano.

In the championship, "Guinters" took advantage of his new second place this afternoon to consolidate his lead: the Frenchman accumulated 85 points, against 65 for Davies and 45 for Laverty. Let us congratulate our two other representatives: Jules Cluzel and Loris Baz who are respectively in 8th and 9th places in the provisional classification. !

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