Jonathon Rea has continued his dominating form in the World SBK weekend at Misano. Biaggi would be back for a 1-off as well, talking home point scoring races

SBK Race 1 Report:

Championship leader Rea maintains 100% podium record in 2015.

The opening race of the day at the World SBK Misano World circuit Marco Simoncelli was won by Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) who converted his 27^th Pole Position into his 25^th career win in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

Leading from the start, Sykes led all 21 laps, coming home ahead of team mate and championship leader Jonathan Rea and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) who delighted the Italian fans around the circuit with an incredible final lap duel for 2^nd position. Davies lunged past Rea into the final corner only to run wide, being passed again on the run to the flag by Rea.

Davide Giugliano put the second official factory Ducati into 4^th, the Italian running 2^nd for the majority of the 21 lap encounter before being overhauled by the British pairing of Rea and Davies in the final two laps. He did however claim a new lap record, which he set on lap 3.

Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) was unable to show the pace he had in qualifying coming home 5^th, 0.1s ahead of the returning Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) who had a steady ride to finish 6^th. The six time World Champion survived a heart stopping moment on the opening lap when he collided with Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team).

Guintoli would eventually finish 9^th after fighting for the full 21 laps with Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia), Michele Pirro (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) who finished 7^th and 8^th, and his own Pata Honda team-mate Michael van der Mark who finished just behind the Frenchman in 10^th.

The final point scorers were Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing), Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven) and Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing).

Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) was running in the leading group before crashing at turn 3 on the 3^rd lap. The WorldSBK rookie was physically annoyed with himself as he walked back to the pits.

Results:   1  Tom Sykes – Kawasaki   2.   Jonathan Rea – Kawasaki   3.    Chaz Davies – Ducati

“Obviously we have to start to think about the championship now but I wanted to win today. In race two Davide Giugliano was a good marker to understand my pace and then with a few laps left I made a move to pass. We made a great race and I think at the end we are using our rear tyres better than some others. We changed our rear tyre choice from race one and that was always the plan, as the morning was a bit cooler. Kawasaki has given us a bike to win and they proved that today with Tom winning race one and me winning race two. I am so grateful to be in this position.”

Jonathan Rea – Kawasaki – Race 1  2^nd  Race 2  1^st

WSBK Race 2 report :

Giugliano just loses out after race long fight with Rea.

The second race of the PATA Riviera di Rimini round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship was won by championship leader, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), after a race long fight with Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team).

Giugliano took the lead on lap 7 where he stayed until being passed by Rea with 5 laps to go. The current points leader was kept under constant pressure by the Italian, but held on to record his 11^th win of the year by 1.290s. Rea’s double podium finish equals the record set by Troy Corser in 2005 of 16 consecutive podium finishes in a season.

Behind the first two, Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) got the better of Chaz Davies on the second factory Ducati after their own personal race long duel to claim the final podium place.

Race one winner Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) was strong for the first half of the second encounter before dropping back to 5^th at the flag. The former champion finished just ahead of Max Biaggi and Jordi Torres, the Aprilia Racing pairing swapping places throughout the 21 laps.

Michele Pirro rode a lonely race to finish 8^th on the 3^rd Aruba.it Racing Ducati with Pata Honda team mates Sylvain Guintoli and Michael van der Mark completing the top ten.

The final 5 point scoring riders were Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia), Niccolo Canepa (Althea Racing), Markus Reiterberger (VanZon Rehema BMW), Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven) and David Salom (Team Pedercini).

Leandro Mercado’s run of point scoring finishes in every race came to an end, the Argentine rider retiring his Barni Racing Ducati at the end of lap 3.

Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) was another of the riders to retire, on lap 9

Results    1  Jonathan Rea – Kawasaki   2.   Davide Guigliano – Ducati   3.   Leon Haslam – Aprilia

Championship leader board – 1. Jonathan Rea – Kawasaki – 375 points   2. Tom Sykes – Kawasaki – 242 points  3.  Leon Haslam – Aprilia – 226 points    3.  Chaz Davies – Ducati – 213 points   5.  Jordi Torres – Aprilia – 140 points

“I’m happy with this weekend. Everything went well and we didn’t make any mistakes. Once again I’d like to thank the Piaggio Group, Aprilia and the guys from Noale for all this Race 2 went better than the first. I finished about 5 seconds behind the winner, which is really not much at all. It’s a shame about the first laps when you find yourself following from behind it’s a struggle. I am still unable to take full advantage of the tyres straight away, whereas from mid-race I felt fast but struggling to overtake I lost a few tenths every lap. This type of return is definitely not easy, but it was a great weekend, tackled with a different spirit than the full-timers. Now I’m hoping for the cherry on the top: Sepang. This round was sort of a test, next time we’ll do well.”

Max Biaggi – Aprilia     Race 1 – 6th    Race 2 –  6th

WSS 

10^th career win for Cluzel as he halves the points gap to Sofuoglu.

The World Supersport race in Misano was won in style by Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) who converted Pole Position into his 3^rd win of 2015, the 10^th of his WSS career. The Frenchman smashed the lap record for the MIsano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli by over half a second on his way to victory by 1.525s at the flag.

At the end of 19 laps, Cluzel was joined on the podium by PJ Jacobsen (CORE Motorsport Thailand) and Lorenzo Zanetti (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) who were 2^nd and 3^rd respectively.

Gino Rea (CIA Landlords Insurance Honda) finished 4^th ahead of an elated Alex Baldolini (Race Department ATK#25) who snatched 5^th from Fabio Menghi (VFT Racing) on the final lap.

Christian Gamarino was 7^th on the Team Go Eleven Kawasaki, just edging Riccardo Russo (CIA Landlords Insurance Honda), Marco Faccani (San Carlo Puccetti Racing) and Martin Cardenas (CIA Landlords Insurance Honda).

Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) finished 11^th after crashing out of 3^rd on the final lap. The championship leader was lucky to be able to remount to salvage what could be an important 5 points.

Kyle Smith was unable to start the race after a technical problem on the sighting lap sidelined the Pata Honda rider.