WSBK – WSBK France (1): Melandri offers victory to Guintoli –

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WSBK France (1): Melandri offers victory to Guintoli

WSBK - WSBK France (1): Melandri offers victory to Guintoli -

After demonstrating that he could win the race, Marco Melandri ceded his first place to Sylvain Guintoli. The Frenchie therefore continues, more than ever, to fight for the world title against Tom Sykes, to whom Loris Baz had to offer his 4th place. ! After having benefited from ideal conditions …

After demonstrating that he could win the race, Marco Melandri ceded his first place to Sylvain Guintoli. The Frenchie therefore continues, more than ever, to fight for the world title against Tom Sykes, to whom Loris Baz had to offer his 4th place. !

After enjoying ideal conditions for the Superpole yesterday afternoon, the Superbike riders will have to ride in the wet for their first race this morning. The number of laps is therefore limited to 19 laps, against 21 in the dry … Action !

First Superbike race

Tom Sykes starts off very well but Jonathan Rea gets stuck inside the n ° 1 Kawasaki. The two British drivers precede Davide Giugliano, Marco Melandri and Sylvain Guintoli who passes in front of his teammate in Estoril. Follow Xavi Fores, Alex Lowes, Loris Baz and Eugene Laverty.

Determined as never – or rarely! – Guintoli overtook a handful of drivers with – very big – braking Adelaide but his n ° 1 enemy (Sykes, who else?) Took second place from him in the Nurburgring. Meanwhile, Rea is on the run !

Sylvain passes in front of Tom on the descent to Lycee. Davies attacks Sykes but can’t stay ahead of him! The English Ninja starts the 2nd round followed by Davies, Melandri, Giugliano, Baz and Fores (German champion 2014). Davies fall in Adelaide but don’t kill nobody, phew !

Guintoli clearly digs up the hatchet and joins Rea on the second loop. Our Frenchie passed Rea just before negotiating the straight line chicane. The public rises to cheer their adored No.50! Meanwhile, Alex Lowes joins the pits. Elias falls in Adelaide as he drives past Barrier. Sylvain therefore climbs to ninth position ahead of a certain Laverty.

Guintoli attacks the 4th lap with a lead of one second over Rea. The n ° 65 was a few lengths ahead of Sykes, followed and threatened by Giugliano. Davide attacks Tom on the climb to Water Castle, forcing the English Ninja to deviate from his path and cut the snaps … Fifth, Loris Baz watches all this with interest! Further behind, Laverty comes out but leaves again.

Giugliano continues his comeback and reaches second place and is now aiming for Aprilia # 50, but the Italian does – again! – a little too much and ends up on the ground. Behind, Baz and Melandri in turn overtake Rea, soon imitated by Sykes. Fores, in contact with these cadors since the start, falls into Estoril and must give up.

Guinters who continues his race alone – and in the lead! – starts to overtake latecomers at the end of the 6th lap! More than three seconds behind the official Aprilia No.50 is the No.33 and the two factory Kawasaki. Rea is a good second from the trio. His teammate Haslam occupies the sixth position and turns faster than JR…

Sylvain Barrier is more than thirty seconds behind Guintoli but occupies a superb seventh place, a handful of seconds behind the "wildcard" Lorenzo Lanzi in his German Ducati. Jeremy Guarnoni is 11th, Fabien Foret is in the points in 15th position, and Nicolas Salchaud on his F4RR is 16th.

Sylvain Guintoli gives Geoff May a turn in the 9th loop but the Frenchie only has eyes for his panel which keeps him informed of the gap that separates him from his teammate Melandri, this sacred Marco who deprived him of victory twice in Jerez !

In the background, Giugliano – gone again! – ensures the show by going up the classification. The n ° 34 takes eighth place by overtaking Max Neukirchner and Sylvain Barrier. The latter is still the first Evo driver just ahead of Nicolo Canepa and Jeremy Guarnoni.

Far ahead, Guintoli fails to match Melandri’s pace. The Frenchman even got out of the chicane by going up on the Water Tower and made it even easier for the Italian to come back who found himself in the aspiration of the RSV4 n ° 50 at the end of the 13th lap….

Marco overtook Sylvain with disconcerting ease but his team displayed for the second time a dissatisfied "smiley" on his panel: the Aprilia team asked him to return first place to his teammate still in contention for the championship! Will Melandri heed this instruction? ?

There are only three laps to go and Melandri still has a good lead over Guintoli. But at the exit of d’Estoril, the Hedgehog stops accelerating and lets Guinters pass! The spectators warmly thank the Italian and encourage Sylvain to fight to the end.

Meanwhile, Sykes scrambles behind his own teammate Baz: the two Ninjas even rub their fairings on the descent to High School! The Kawasaki team forces Loris to lose a place but the future-ex-Kawasaki rider does not hear it that way and increases his lead over Sykes…

In front, the two Aprilia unwind much more wisely up to the checkered flag. Sylvain Guintoli pocketed the 25 points but Marco Melandri did indeed deserve the title of "winner" of this first race at Magny-Cours. Jonathan Rea crosses the finish line five seconds behind them…

Then come the two Kawasaki! Annoyed, Loris Baz waited for the final chicane to cede his fourth place to Tom Sykes. The "Number One" won two additional points and thus has 19 points more than Guinters in the championship. Next points distribution: in just under three hours !

While waiting for the second round, let’s salute Sylvain Barrier’s 10th place, which corresponds to another victory for the BMW Italia driver in the Evo category! Jeremy Guranoni accompanies him on the Evo podium, behind Niccolo Canepa. Fabien Foret takes the point of 15th place and Nicolas Salchaud finishes in a very satisfactory 16th place.

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