WSBK – WSBK Assen: Sykes and Laverty go back to Guintoli –

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WSBK Assen: Sykes and Laverty go back to Guintoli

WSBK - WSBK Assen: Sykes and Laverty go back to Guintoli -

Tom Sykes and Eugene Laverty won this Sunday at Assen in World Superbike. They thus grab some points from the leader of the championship, Sylvain Guintoli. In the Supersport category, Lowes and Sofuoglu are back on Foret…

Tom Sykes and Eugene Laverty won this Sunday at Assen in World Superbike. They thus grab some points from the leader of the championship, Sylvain Guintoli. In the Supersport category, Lowes and Sofuoglu are back on Foret…

This afternoon in the first round, Tom Sykes left no chance to his opponents! Starting from pole position, the English Ninja flew over the race, winning over Jonathan Rea and Sylvain Guintoli. Baz signs a new Top 5, Cluzel a Top 10 !

In the second round, Eugene Laverty found a way to beat the Kawa ‘n ° 66, yet super swift on the Dutch circuit … The podium was completed by another French rider: Loris Baz, on the other official Kawasaki! The second race smiled less on his compatriots: Sylvain finished "only" 6th and Jules retired.

In Supersport, after Kenan Sofuoglu in Australia and Fabien Foret in Spain, it was Sam Lowes’ turn to win this Sunday in the Netherlands. The three favorites 2013 reach the podium, but Fabien retains the advantage in the championship…

First Superbike race

The first twist comes from the warm-up lap: Marco Melandri is idling in the middle of the course! He gets off his machine and pushes it desperately, but n ° 33 is far too far from the pits to hope to start the first race … in vain.

When the red lights go out, the Kawasaki rears up slightly. Jonathan Rea takes the lead in front of Sykes but the Ninja very quickly takes the reins of the race. Davide Giugliano is in the wheel of the two English, followed by the official Aprilia of Laverty and Guintoli.

Loris Baz and Jules Cluzel follow our compatriot at n ° 50, leader of the championship by the way, in sixth and seventh places. Carlos Checa and Ayrton Badovini on Team Alstare’s Panigales, and Michel Fabrizio on the fourth Aprilia on the grid complete the Top 10.

Loris Baz pulls the pin and goes on the attack from the second round: "Bazooka" overtakes Cluzel and sets off in pursuit of the leading group which is two seconds ahead of him..

Sykes prints his rhythm and counts a second in advance at the start of the 3rd lap. Rea holds on as long as he can, now followed by Laverty. Giugliano takes the aspiration of the official Aprilia n ° 58 while the n ° 50 is a few lengths away.

Baz rolls alone in 7th position, two seconds ahead of Cluzel who leads a particularly dissipated peloton: Chaz Davies and Carlos Checa are in Jules’s wheel, Leon Camier in turn overtakes Ayrton Badovini – offended by a fall on Saturday – and Michel Fabrizio.

Sylvain Guintoli passed Davide Giugliano and immediately climbed back on his teammate posted in third position. The Irishman doesn’t leave the backsplash of the No.65 Honda, which rolls three seconds behind the indomitable Ninja No.66.

Davies took advantage of a gap from Cluzel to overtake the Frenchman, just before starting the 7th lap. Jules manhandles his Suzuki … which hardly appreciates and wriggles in all directions! In a very personal style – who said "nag"? -, n ° 16 does everything to try to pass n ° 19, in vain.

Laverty jumps to second place by diving inside Rea under braking at the end of the straight! Guintoli remains slightly behind in the next loop and waits for the ninth lap to climb to the third step of the podium.

Far from all this hustle and bustle, Tom Sykes chained perfect laps and had more than five seconds ahead of time just before halfway. His teammate, our compatriot, Loris Baz goes up on Davide Giugliano and threatens the fifth place of the Italian in the 10th lap … and steals him in the 11th !

18 seconds behind leader n ° 66, Checa and Camier are fighting for ninth place. Four seconds ahead of them, Davies and Cluzel are aiming for seventh place, or even sixth for Giugliano who rolls three seconds ahead. Baz and Giugliano are still together and are fighting for fifth place.

The fastest man on the track remains Tom Sykes. At the end of the 13th round, the 2012 vice-world champion has more than seven seconds ahead of his three pursuers: Laverty, Guintoli and Rea still.

It was not until the 15th round to see Guintoli launch an attack – unstoppable – at the end of the straight line! The Frenchie is 8.5 seconds behind Sykes: he rolls for 20 points for second place, no more. Just behind, Jonathan in turn overtakes Eugene, suddenly in a rapid sequence…

Johnny takes advantage of his perfect knowledge of the track to keep the pressure on "Guinters". The very last laps are likely to be very lively between the "house" rider of the Honda Ten Kate team and the two Aprilia officials !

It’s three laps from the end that Rea delivers a new lightning attack – exactly the same as on Laverty! – on Guintoli. The Fireblade takes advantage of the big curves of the course to grab a little lead over the two more powerful RSV4s.

Eugene tries an attack at the end of the straight line but Sylvain is holding on on the outside! The n ° 50 is warned: his teammate wants to get on the podium … As if stung to the quick, Guintoli gets back into Rea’s wheel and passes in front of the Honda at the start of the very last lap !

Tom Sykes tumbles alone in the lead and pockets 25 well-deserved points, while Jonathan Rea passes Sylvain Guintoli back in his fetish sequence! The two drivers join Tom on the podium in that order, separated by only six thousandths of a second … phew !

Eugene Laverty crossed the finish line half a second later and Loris Baz completed the Top 5, 14 seconds behind his unbeatable teammate. Jules Cluzel obtains an honorable 8th place behind Giugliano and Davies, ahead of Camier and Checa.

Supersport Race

Kenan Sofuoglu takes the best start ahead of Sam Lowes and … Florian Marino! The young Frenchman is ahead of Jack Kennedy and Fabien Foret. Passed by Fabien, the Irishman answered tit for tat and passed the two French before the end of the first loop !

In front, Kenan and Sam roll together but take care not to get in the way at the very start of the race, so that the two unlucky people from Aragon are a good second ahead of their pursuers from the second lap..

Foret, Kennedy and Marino put a lot more atmosphere! The first two move away from Marino in the 3rd loop, while Luca Scassa and Lorenzo Zanetti go up on Florian. The Top 10 is completed by Andrea Antonelli, Roberto Rolfo (on MV Agusta!) And Gabor Talmacsi.

The incredible rookie Van den Mark is at a distant 13th place, rather disappointing for the local driver who finished his first two races in World Supersport on the podium !

In the lead, the R6 n ° 11 fits into the aspiration of the Kawasaki n ° 54 but is careful not to attempt an attack. The situation is the same two seconds behind: the Honda n ° 4 wisely follows in the wake of the Kawasaki n ° 99, in the hope that it will lead it towards the two leading motorcycles..

Florian Marino moves back one place but does not let go of Luca Scassa’s rear wheel … He does well to stay focused on the Kawa ‘n ° 9 because behind him circulates a horde of seriously sharp second knives: Coghlan, Zanetti, Rolfo , Antonelli, Van den Mark and Iddon roll in the same second !

During this time, Foret produced his effort: he released Kennedy and joined, at the midpoint of the race, the leading duo who had changed order: Sam Lowes was in the lead but did not escape. In the 12th round, Sam turns squarely on his opponents and allows Kenan to regain the first place…

The leading trio gradually increases the pace without breaking up. Kennedy, on the other hand, completely let it go: in the 14th lap, the Irish rookie was eleven seconds behind and was caught up by Scassa and Marino, still wheel to wheel..

Michael Van den Mark has finally found the right rhythm on "his" circuit and is back in the peloton: the reigning Superstock 600 champion takes sixth place from Marino on the 16th lap. The two young drivers see the hapless Luca Scassa fall just in front of them and easily gain a place.

At the front of the race, Sofuoglu and Lowes remain inseparable. Foret, who may have emptied his tire capital to return to the middle of the race, is forced to let his two adversaries slip away. Ditto for Kennedy who feels Van den Mark, Marino and Rolfo melting on him !

Three laps from the end, Sofuoglu turns around widely and in turn allows Lowes to seize the reins of the race! Foret is unfortunately too far to claim victory: Sam and Kenan will be able to explain themselves … 17 seconds away, the tone rises between Van den Mark, Kennedy, Marino and Rolfo.

The grand finale is on: Lowes starts the last lap in the lead but the Yamaha is – easily! – overwhelmed by the Kawasaki at the exit of a fast curve. The Turk locks up his trajectories but is slightly missed under braking at the last chicane … Sam takes advantage of it and slides his R6 impeccably under the ZX-6R !

Sam Lowes and his Yamaha therefore won their first race of the season at Assen, ahead of the two other 2013 winners: Kenan Sofuoglu and Fabien Foret on Kawasaki. Van den Mark and his Honda take a rather unexpected fourth place, Marino and his ZX-6R a satisfactory fifth place.

Thanks to his second consecutive podium, Fabien Foret retains the lead in the provisional classification. The French n ° 99 has five points more than Van den Mark, and nine more than his two main rivals in the championship: Lowes and Sofuoglu…

Second Superbike race

Tom Sykes got off to a perfect start this time and took the lead from the first corner. He precedes Eugene Laverty, Jonathan Rea, Loris Baz, Marco Melandri, Davide Giugliano, Sylvain Guintoli, Chaz Davies, Carlos Checa and Jules Cluzel, heckled by his teammate Leon Camier !

Giugliano climbs to fifth place due to Melandri’s deficit at the end of the first lap. The n ° 34 followed immediately and passed Baz to gain fourth place. The Italian momentarily climbs ahead of Rea, but the No.65 responds tit for tat…

Sykes and Laverty isolated themselves in the lead: at the very start of the third lap, the n ° 66 Kawasaki and the n ° 58 Aprilia were already one second ahead of Rea, still threatened and finally overtaken by Giugliano. Baz is slightly behind but still dominates Melandri and Guintoli.

Two laps later, moreover, Bazooka found himself in Rea’s wheel which collided with Giugliano. A short second behind our favorite n ° 76, Melandri lost two places in quick succession against Sylvain Guintoli and Chaz Davies. Guinters finds himself 1.5 seconds from Baz…

Giugliano loses the front in the 6th lap. The fall was harmless for the pilot, but his private Aprilia caught fire and forced the fiery Roman to abandon … Rea therefore climbed back on the podium, followed closely by Baz and, a little further, by Guintoli.

The third Frenchman Jules Cluzel gives up his eighth place to his teammate Leon Camier. Michel Fabrizio closes the Top 10, a good second ahead of Carlos Checa. The first Ducati rider is ahead of the other two 1199 Panigales from Badovini and Neukirchner. Marco Melandri is lost on braking and slows down significantly, falling to 11th place.

Meanwhile, Loris Baz does not spare his Kawasaki n ° 76, not more than the Honda n ° 65 for that matter! The "green giant" passes in front of Johnny but the tenacious Honda rider still finds the parade. Baz tries his luck again in Rea’s favorite sequence … and passes it !

On the 9th lap, the duel turns to the advantage of the Frenchman and at the same time benefits Sylvain Guintoli who infiltrates in front of the Honda in the last chicane. Baz and Guintoli go hunting their respective teammates, Tom Sykes and Eugene Laverty, who have not left each other since the red lights went out !

The superb fight between the Kawa ‘n ° 76, the Aprilia n ° 50 and the Honda n ° 65 allows a fourth machine to make the connection: the BMW n ° 19 of Davies! Two Suzuki follow the chase group, unfortunately a little too far: Camier and Cluzel are seven seconds behind Chaz…

The halfway mark is crossed and nothing changes at the forefront: the RSV4 n ° 58 remains stuck to the backrest of the ZX-10R n ° 66! Guintoli climbs to the third step of the podium in the 14th lap but must be wary of his three pursuers…

While Marco Melandri returned to the Top 10 by overtaking Carlos Checa, we deplore the abandonment – due to mechanical concerns – of our formidable rookie Jules Cluzel! Michel Fabrizio inherits eighth place, Melandri and Checa ninth and tenth.

In front, Baz returned to Guintoli on the 17th lap. The tamer of Kawa ‘is quickly imitated by Rea … The leader of the championship – Sylvain, who else? – let Loris and Jonathan go and take the full brunt of the pressure from Chaz Davies.

In front, Tom Sykes still rolls ahead of Eugene Laverty, but the Aprilia rider seems faster than the Kawasaki rider. The long-awaited attack comes three laps from the end and the n ° 58 begins to take off. In the hunting group, Sylvain goes back to fourth place.

At the end of the 20th loop, Jonathan Rea plants an impressive braking on Sylvain Guintoli at the chicane. The pilot Ten Kate sets off to attack Loris Baz and his third place … In front of Eugene Laverty continues to lead but does not manage to drop Tom Sykes.

Highly motivated, the English Ninja even manages to post his ZX-10R a few centimeters from the Irishman’s RSV4 on the outskirts of the last corners. But Eugene had a clear end of the course and Tom had no choice but to bow in this second round..

Loris Baz, winner of the Bol d’Or last weekend, joins the two Britons on the podium! Jonathan Rea fails at the foot of the podium, five hundredths of a second behind our compatriot. Sylvain Guintoli on the contrary is capped at the post by Chaz Davies and finished sixth in the race.

This is the worst result for "Guinters": for the first time in six races, Sylvain does not reach the podium. But our beloved n ° 50 retains the championship lead! He leaves Assen with a total of 111 points, against 83 points for three of his great opponents: Laverty, Davies and Sykes.

The next World Superbike meeting is set in two weeks in the temple of speed: Monza! Kawasaki and Aprilia will be formidable again. And it’s good for Guintoli and Baz !

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