RACE 1 WORLDSBK
Rea Scores As Bautista Falls Again
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) took a masterful start-to-finish win in a wet Race One at Donington Park, and with it, the championship lead for the first time in 2019. He is now nine points in front of Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) who fell once again, in the wet conditions. Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) finished second, 11 seconds adrift of Rea, who had taken a huge lead after just a single lap. Homeboy Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team) was a crowd-pleasing third, 23 seconds behind the winner. Wet weather wizard Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) was fourth; Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) fifth. A strong run from Argentinean Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) saw him sixth. Peter Hickman (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was seventh, Misano faller Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) eighth, with Alessandro Delbianco (Althea MIE Racing Team Honda) ninth and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) tenth.
SUPERPOLE RACE WORLDSBK
Wild SBK Sprint Race Sees Rea Win
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) won the ten-lap Tissot-Superpole race at Donington, even if it was only finally classified after seven laps.A massive oil leak from Peter Hickman’s BMW Motorrad S1000RR saw him run off at the Melbourne Loop but the oil his bike had put on track on the braking area saw five following riders crash in succession and the red flag be shown. As the lead riders – Rea, Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) came round at a much-reduced pace under the red flag Sykes found the oil under braking and crashed. As he could not ride his bike back to the pitlane within the prescribed time limit, he was eventually knocked out of the race results altogether, despite his fall being caused by another machine’s oil spill, and under a red flag.
The top three was thus Rea, who had taken the lead at half race distance, Razgatlioglu and Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team). Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was fourth, and Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) a dry weather fifth, 2.7 seconds from Rea. Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) was sixth, and every other rider behind him was classified as a lap behind, given that the latest championship rules ‘freeze’ results at the point of a red flag being shown, sector-by-sector. Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was seventh and Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) eighth, with Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing Kawasaki) and Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) ninth and tenth respectively.
After some discussion, the results were declared final, with Sykes not classified as a finisher.
Rea moved 15 points clear of Bautista, with the second full 23-lap race to come in the afternoon.
RACE 2 WORLDSBK
Rea On Triple Time At Donington
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) scored his first-ever triple in WorldSBK after winning the final race of the weekend, by a slender 0.365 seconds, from Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing). A superb three-rider fight between those two Kawasaki riders, and Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team) for much of the first half of the race, ended when Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) came back strongly to finish third, albeit 5.930 seconds from Rea, and further behind in the championship points. Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team), Haslam and Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) finished in a group just behind Bautista from fourth to sixth, and with Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) just off the back of it, the top seven riders finished within 8.542 seconds of each other. Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) was an eventual eighth, with Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) ninth and Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) tenth – almost 30 seconds back.
In the championship, Rea leads by 24 points from Bautista, 376 to 352, with VDM on 206, Lowes on 192 and Haslam on 187.
Sykes, Sprint race, British WorldSBK 2019
Pics GnG
Words Gordon Richie