WSBK Spain (1): another double for the Aprilia
Leader during three quarters of this first Superbike race in Jerez, Guintoli could do nothing against his teammate Melandri. The two Aprilia factory riders score their fourth double this season ahead of Davies’ official Ducati.
Leader during three quarters of this first Superbike race in Jerez, Guintoli could do nothing against his teammate Melandri. The two Aprilia factory riders score their fourth double this season ahead of Davies’ official Ducati.
First Superbike race
Our poleman Bazooka did not draw the fastest: Marco Melandri and Sylvain Guintoli jumped from the second row of the grid ahead of Loris Baz, Alex Lowes, Tom Sykes, Chaz Davies, Davide Giugliano, Jonathan Rea, Eugene Laverty and Toni Elias. Sylvain Barrier is 13th, Jeremy Guarnoni 17th.
Feverish on his official RSV4, Melandri lost three places in the first lap. Lowes, on the contrary, is supercharged at the controls of his GSX-R1000 and doubles Baz and his factory Ninja in the last corner. !
Guintoli on his Aprilia n ° 50 therefore leads in front of Suzuki n ° 22 and Kawasaki n ° 76. All three widen a slight gap on Melandri, Davies, Sykes and Giugliano. The English Ninja Sykes was not in the rhythm at the start of the race and gave up 6th place to Davide. In the 2nd lap, Melandri is in turn overtaken by the official Ducatis !
With our "Guinters" rolling cleanly in the lead, Lowes had to counter Davies’ attacks, followed closely by Giugliano. Unable to find the opening on the Suz ‘in front of him, "Chazie" is in turn attacked by his – always – hot teammate..
Behind the turbulent Panigale, Melandri, Sykes and Rea take the measure of the track, a little chilly this morning. Five seconds behind the two French leaders, Sylvain Barrier leads the Evo race. Guarnoni for his part is fighting for 15th place against Andreozzi, Canepa and Staring.
At the very end of the 4th lap, Baz brakes Guintoli and takes the reins of the race. Mounted in third position, Giugliano is only a second behind the French. No.34 leads the peloton of Lowes, Davies, Melandri, Rea, Sykes, Haslam and Laverty, 10th four seconds behind the lead.
Johnny Rea takes seventh place on the 7th lap. In doing so, he pulls Lowes slightly out of the way. The young English champion momentarily loses track and is passed in quick succession by Sykes and Haslam. Alex finds himself ninth, just ahead of his teammate !
In front, Guintoli takes the lead in the 8th loop at the end of the opposite straight line, braking turn 6. On the other machine of the Noale factory and in exactly the same passage, Melandri takes Davies his fourth place.
The halfway mark is crossed and Guintoli is half a second ahead of his – our! – compatriot Baz. Two Italians approach dangerously: Giugliano and Melandri! Aprilia rider drives past Ducati on first braking of 11th lap.
Behind, undoubtedly frustrated by his seventh place, Sykes went off the track at the end of the pit straight. The world champion will not be on the podium this morning … just like Giugliano who has just lost the front of his Panigale, relieves it in the gravel with the help of marshals, tries to start again but gets bogged down and gives up his mount !
The track is therefore free for Chaz Davies who is two seconds behind the leading trio: Guintoli, Baz and Melandri, all three in the same second! 17 seconds away, Sylvain Barrier continues to fight with Toni Elias for the Top 10, but David Salom is not far away…
At the very start of the 15th lap, Melandri unleashes an attack on Baz on the climb to the first corner. The Italian dives inside the Kawasaki, forcing Loris to quickly straighten his bike. However, n ° 76 remained outside n ° 33 and accidentally planted its brake lever in the Italian’s tire … Baz fell immediately, without hurting himself, but could not start again.
The race continues despite everything and Melandri is inexorably closer to Guintoli. Marco passed Sylvain in the first corner and took to the chase … Chaz Davies still occupies third place, almost five seconds behind Aprilia n ° 33.
Meanwhile, Barrier is still fighting Elias … and Salom! Sylvain and David are fighting for first place in the Evo standings while eyeing Toni’s eighth place. The n ° 52 and 44 play elbows and fairings on the track, literally !
The end of the race was much calmer at the front: Marco Melandri flew to victory, Guintoli had to be content with second place and Davies was one second ahead of Rea, two over Sykes and Laverty. Haslam occupies a solitary seventh place.
Melandri suddenly slows down on the penultimate lap and loses half of his lead over Guintoli, but Marco achieves a perfect final lap and wins the first Spanish race. Chaz Davies hoists his Ducati behind the two official Aprilia.
The world champion and championship leader finished fifth behind Jonathan Rea. The "Number One" lead over Guintoli in the provisional standings is now 35 points. But a second race is scheduled in less than two hours … Stay tuned !
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