World Superbike

 

Round 5 at Imola, the Acerbis Italian Round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship, today saw Jonathan Rea win both races.

The opening race resulted in victory for championship leader Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) after a the race was initially red flagged and restarted because of a crash involving David Salom (Team Pedercini Kawasaki), who fell off his factory ZX-10R at Rivazza on lap 11. After being taken to the Medical Centre, the Spaniard was diagnosed with a left radius bone fracture and a deep elbow contusion.

The pace in the restart was electric, as the Kawasaki pairing of Sykes and Rea pushed each other to the limit. A lap record on lap 2 for Rea saw him pass his team mate only for Sykes to respond with an even faster lap to pile on the pressure. A tense final lap saw Rea cling on to claim his 22nd career win ahead of Sykes with Davide Giugliano who produced a determined ride to claim 3rd and the final podium place on his return to the WorldSBK paddock.

Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) made changes during the short delay, the British rider looked more comfortable, finishing fourth ahead of the Pata Honda machine of reigning World Champion Sylvain Guintoli, who moved up from 15th on the original starting grid to fifth. Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) scored a solid ten points in sixth.

Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Ducati) was part of a six rider group that was fighting for fifth, the reigning FIM Superstock 1000cc Cup winner taking seventh ahead of Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing Ducati), Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) and Michel Fabrizio, who took a solid tenth position on his one-off ride, replacing the injured Nico Terol.

Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki), Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Santiago Barragan (Grillini SBK Team Kawasaki), Christophe Ponsson (Team Pedercini) and Imre Toth (BMW Team Toth) rounded out the point scoring finishers.

Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) was running in sixth in the early stages of the first part of race 1 before a mistake dropped him down the order, the Spanish WorldSBK rookie re-grouped before crashing out unhurt with 11 laps to go. He along with Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team) were unable to take part in the restart.

The second WorldSBK race of the Acerbis Italian Round went the full 19-lap distance, with the Kawasaki Racing duo claiming their second 1-2 finish of the day as Jonathan Rea once again got the better of Tom Sykes with a comfortable 4.399s lead at the line. For Rea it was the eighth win from ten starts, which also completed his third double of the year.

After a second technical fault for Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team), the final podium position went to Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) who claimed his career’s first rostrum finish as he crossed the line third ahead of Italians Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team), Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) and Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing Ducati).

Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki), Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Ducati), Michel Fabrizio (Althea Racing Ducati) and Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) completed the top ten.

Sylvain Guintoli and his Pata Honda team-mate Michael van der Mark both crashed out before half distance as did Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils). A number of other retirements meant only 13 riders completed the race.

In the championship standings Jonathan Rea heads to his home round at Donington Park with a stretched points advantage after his double race win, the gap to his nearest rival Leon Haslam is 87 points.

 

World Supersport

 

The 17-lap World Supersport race held at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari was won by Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) after another intriguing duel between the Turkish rider and one of his closest rivals Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse).

The pair smashed the lap record repeatedly as they pulled away from the chasing pack with Sofuoglu eventually taking the win, the 30th of his WSS career and the third in a row in 2015, to extend his championship lead after Cluzel made the smallest mistake at Variante Bassa on the final tour to miss out on the victory by 0.883s.

Last year’s race winner Lorenzo Zanetti (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) was unable to live with the pace of the front two, having to be content with third after the Italian overhauled PJ Jacobsen and Marco Faccani (San Carlo Puccetti Racing) who were fourth and fifth respectively.

Ratthapark Wilairot (CORE” Motorsport Thailand Honda) led Gino Rea (CIA Landlords Insurance Honda) over the line, the two locked together for the race duration, taking 6th, 7th ahead of Rea’s team mates Riccardo Russo and Martin Cardenas, while Roberto Rolfo (Lorini Honda) rounded out the top ten.

Kyle Smith (Pata Honda World Supersport Team) crashed out of contention on lap 3, he was able to re-join to claim the final point in 15th.

 

Superstock 1000

 

Lorenzo Savadori (Nuova M2 Racing Aprilia) claimed his second win of the season by coming out on top at the end of the 14-lap FIM Superstock 1000 Cup race at Imola’s Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari. The 22 year old from Cesena crossed the finish line with a controlled margin ahead of fellow Italian Roberto Tamburini (MotoxRacing BMW) as long-time second-place man Ondrej Jezek completed the podium.

Factory Yamaha rider Kev Coghlan edged out Fabio Massei (EAB Racing Ducati) for fourth as other MRS rider Jeremy Guarnoni, Tony Covena (EAB Racing Ducati), Luca Salvadori (Althea Racing Ducati), wildcard Denni Schiavoni (2R Racing BMW) and Sylvain Barrier (G.M. Yamaha) rounded out the top-10.

A spectacular crash on the second lap saw Florian Marino (MRS Yamaha) highsiding over Raffaele De Rosa (Althea Racing Ducati) and his Panigale R, both ending up on the gravel and later transferred at the medical centre.

Source: WorldSBK