Superbike World Championship 2018 Motul, Argentina 2018

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Superbike World Championship 2018 Motul, Argentina 2018
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Superbike World Championship 2018 Motul, Argentina 2018

WSBK in San Juan, Argentina 2018
Race 2: Rea unbeatable in Argentina

Rea breaks new records and secures his fifth double victory in a row ahead of the Ducatis of Fores, Melandri and Davies.

Rowena Hinzmann

October 13, 2018

Despite illness, Jonathan Rea also wins the second race in the Argentina debut of the SBK World Championships. The prematurely decided world champion of this season did not let his opponents hold him back even with a stomach disease and goes down in the history books several times with his double victory in Argentina: First winner and double winner in the SBK class in Argentina, fifth double victory and thus first SBK -Pilot with ten wins in a row.

Chaotic early stages for Rea

The way there, however, led the Kawasaki driver through a chaotic initial phase with many duels, for which he sometimes needed several attempts in order to ultimately win. The three-second lead of the leader Xavi Fores also left Rea behind in quantum leaps, so that after just three laps he uncompromisingly tackled the overtaking maneuver and drove to his one-two victory.


Superbike World Championship 2018 Motul, Argentina 2018


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With his fifth podium of the season, Xavi Fores wins the title “Best driver of an independent team in 2018”.

Xavi Fores had no less reason to be happy today. The Ducati rider crossed the finish line in second and, with his fifth podium finish this season, clinched the title of best independent driver of 2018. How and whether the Spaniard will continue next season is still unclear.
After a successful first race with second place, Marco Melandri also made it onto the podium in the second race. After a strong race in which he temporarily fell from fourth to seventh due to a driving error and again had to fight past opponents such as Chaz Davies, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark, the Italian finally managed to fight his way back to third.

Razgatlioglu leaves the grip

He was followed by teammate Chaz Davies and Tom Sykes. The latter was able to pass Toprak Razgatlioglu in the final phase, who in the meantime seemed to smell the podium again in third place. In the middle of the race, Kenan Sofuoglu’s protege got serious problems with the tires, which is why he ran out of funds to defend himself and was handed down to seventh place behind Alex Lowes.


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For Eugene Laverty, the end of the race came surprisingly early due to a fall on the third lap.

After his retirement in the first race, Lorenzo Savadori won eighth place on Sunday and was the only Aprilia driver to collect points for the team after the race for Eugene Laverty had ended early. The Italian, who was in second place at the time, surprisingly lost his front wheel on lap three and fell. Michael van der Mark and Jake Gagne bring up the rear of the top 10.

Similar to race 1, Loris Baz had his hands full to defend his position until the end. In the second race, however, it was local hero Leandro Mercado who stuck to his rear and repeatedly tried to overtake. In the end, however, Baz emerged from the duel as the stronger and was eleventh. Roman Ramos and Hernandez substitute Gabriele Ruiu occupy the last two positions in the field with 13th and 14th place.

Result race 2

1.  Jonathan Rea Kawasaki
2. Xavi Fores Ducati
3.  Marco Melandri Ducati
4th. Chaz Davies Ducati
5.  Tom Sykes Kawasaki
6th.  Alex Lowes Yamaha
7th.  Toprak Razgatlioglu Kawasaki
8th.  Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia
9.  Michael van der Mark Yamaha
10.  Jake Gagne Honda
11.  Loris Baz BMW
12th.  Leandro Mercado Kawasaki
13th.  Roman Ramos Kawasaki
14th.  Gabriele Ruiu Kawasaki
OUT Maximilian Scheib MV Augusta
OUT John Smrz Yamha
OUT Leon Camier Honda
OUT Eugene Laverty Arprilia
OUT Florian Marino  Honda

Race 1

In the first race of the Juan Villicum Paddock Circuit in Argentina, Jonathan Rea did his laps at the front of the field like a cowboy, winning his 15th race of the season. After a perfect start from second place, the already decided SBK world champion in 2018 took the lead after the first corner and from then on drove up and away from his opponents with sometimes fastest lap times until victory. With this, Rea not only secured his 69th career win, but also his first SBK win on the San Juan Circuit in Argentina.

Razgatlioglu surprises his opponents

While Marco Melandri crossed the finish line safely and confidently in second place, the surprise of the race was Toprak Razgatlioglu. The young Turk was very strong and managed from starting position seven to fight past greats like Alex Lowes, Tom Sykes, Chaz Davies and Eugene Laverty during the race to finally cross the finish line in third place. After Donnington, this is the second podium for the 21-year-old SBK newcomer – and also the fourth world title for Kawasaki. With the victory of Rea and Razgatlioglu, the Japanese manufacturer won the brand title in the Superbike World Championship early and for the fourth time in a row. With the exception of two races in the 2018 season, one driver always finished first or second.


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The newcomer Toprak Razgatlioglu clinched his second podium of the season in the race in Argentina.

Xavi Fores took fourth position just behind Razgatlioglu and just missed his fifth win of the season after Magny-Course. Eugene Laverty crossed the finish line in fifth, followed by Tom Sykes.
The race was particularly disappointing for Yamaha. With seventh place for Alex Lowes and eighth place for Michael van der Mark, the two drivers were only in the middle of the field. Both struggled with grip problems and seemed a long way from performing like in Portimao or Donnington.

Camier puts pressure on Baz

Until the bitter end, however, Loris Baz defended his position in front of Leon Camier. The Honda driver looked in vain for a gap in the last laps before the end to overtake Baz, but the BMW man held too hard and secured ninth place. The bottom of the first race were the reserve drivers Florian Marino (11), Maximilian Scheib (13) and Gabriele Ruiu (14). Kawasaki driver Roman Ramos finished twelfth.

In addition to a series of technical defects, Jake Gagne was eliminated in the fight for tenth against Michael van der Mark and five laps before the end of the world number two Chaz Davies in a duel with Tom Sykes for fifth.

Result race 1

1.  Jonathan Rea Kawasaki
2. Marco Melandri Ducati
3.  Toprak Razgatlioglu Kawasaki
4th. Xavi Fores Ducati
5.  Eugene Laverty Arprilia
6th.  Tom Sykes Kawasaki
7th.  Alex Lowes Yamaha
8th.  Michael van der Mark Yamaha
9.  Loris Baz BMW
10.  Leon Camier Honda
11.  Florian Marino  Honda
12th.  Roman Ramos Kawasaki
13th.  Maximilian Scheib MV Augusta
14th.  Gabriele Ruiu Kawasaki
OUT Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia
OUT Chaz Davies Ducati
OUT Jake Gagne Honda
OUT Leandro Mercado Kawasaki
OUT John Smrz Yamha

Superpole

On the penultimate race weekend of the 2018 season, the Superbike World Championship will be hosted for the first time at the San Juan Villicum Paddock Circuit in Argentina. Marco Melandri was best able to claim the 4.2 kilometer long track in the Superpole session on Saturday. With a 01: 39.012 he secured the first SBK pole position ever in San Juan and his second of the season. With 0: 440 seconds more on the timer, Jonathan Rea joins the front row to the left, only a hundredth of a second before Eugene Laverty follows into the first race on Saturday (9 p.m. our time).

Sykes from SP1 in fourth place

After a less than successful training Friday, Tom Sykes managed to turn the tide for himself today and fought his way through SP1 to fourth in SP2. Xavi Forres finished fifth with a lap time of 01: 39.590, followed by Alex Lowes.


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Can Leon Camier still lead the Honda Fireblade onto the podium at the end of the season?

Toprak Razgatlioglu opens the third row. On Friday the young Turk showed his skills on the new track and finished in the top 3 in all training sessions. Lorenzo Savadori lets his Aprilia start the first race from eighth place, for Chaz Davies it was no more than ninth today with a 01: 40.094. Honda driver Leon Camier closes the ranks of the top 10 with a time of 01: 40.189 seconds.

After a successful training day on Friday, during which the Briton was able to move up to sixth place after a long time and started out of the top 10 again in the first run, it remains to be seen whether Honda can also show an upward trend in the race.

Michael van der Mark, who like Sykes had to fight his way through SP1 for the time being, did not make any further improvement and starts from eleventh place. The Argentine Leandro Mercado accelerates from twelfth place in front of his home crowd. Behind them are Lors Baz, Jake Gagne and Jacobsen substitute Florian Marino. With Maximilian Scheib (16) and Gabriele Ruiu (19) two more newcomers are going to the starting line to replace Jordi Torres (MV Augusta) and Yonny Hernandes (Kawasaki).

Superpole result

1.  Marco Melandri Ducati 01: 39.012
2. Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 01: 39.452
3.  Eugene Laverty Arprilia 01: 39.530
4th. Tom Sykes Kawasaki 01: 39.558
5.  Xavi Fores Ducati 01: 39.590
6th.  Alex Lowes Yamaha 01: 39.730
7th.  Toprak Razgatlioglu Kawasaki 01: 40.070
8th.  Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 01: 40.083
9.  Chaz Davies Ducati 01: 40.094
10.  Leon Camier Honda 01: 40.189
11.  Michael van der Mark Yamaha 01: 40.343
12th.  Leandro Mercado Kawasaki 01: 40.349
13th.  Loris Baz BMW 01: 40.352
14th.  Jake Gagne Honda 01: 40.718
15th.  Florian Marino  Honda 01: 41.484
16. Maximilian Scheib MV Augusta 01: 41.714
17th. Roman Ramos Kawasaki 01: 41.893
18th. John Smrz Yamha 01: 42.041
19th. Gabriele Ruiu Kawasaki 01: 42.093

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