Donington Park was this weekends setting for possibly the most exciting race of the season thus far. Tom Sykes took the top step on the podium in both races, followed by team mate Loris Baz, giving Kawasaki two splendid one-two races and contributing to increasing the advantage at the top of the Manufacturer standings. In Superbike Race 1 these Kawasaki riders gave the fans one of the most exciting duels in the history of the World Superbike Championship. A fierce Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team), after starting from the seventh on the grid and after slipping to eleventh place at the start, made a great comeback, catching up and overtaking first Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) and then, after a thrilling head to head that lasted a few laps, team mate Loris Baz. The Frenchman, had started from sixth on the grid, managed to move into the lead in the fifth lap, and held onto that position until the nineteenth, but there was nothing he could do to stop the Englishman who disintegrated the initial gap of 3.5 seconds lap after lap. He also earned the Best Lap on the sixteenth and moving into first place after several passes, one of which was right at the limit with both tyres on the kerb. Behind them, finishing the race in third place, was championship rookie Alex Lowes, while Italian rider Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team), who started on pole position, after a less than perfect start was able to make up ground all the way to second place, but was then forced to withdraw on the fifteenth lap due to a crash. One of the contributing factor to such an exciting show was definitely the Pirelli tyres. Both the Kawasaki riders, like most of the Superbike riders on the grid, used standard DIABLO Superbike SC0 tyres on the rear in a soft compound and medium-soft development solutions on the front which allowed the riders to unleash the horsepower of their bikes onto the ground without holding back and allowing Tom Sykes to make an incredible comeback. Race 2 was basically a replay of Race 1, at least with regards to the final result. Again Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team), made a remarkable comeback and took first place with a textbook overtake on Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) and Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team). At the end of the race the Frenchman had to settle for the third, whereas his countryman astride the Kawasaki was unable to contain the hometown hero again, finishing the weekend with two excellent second places which takes him to second place in the overall standings with 159 points, tied with Jonathan Rea. Tom Sykes, after losing the lead in the standings to Jonathan Rea at Imola, took it back boldly with a 26 advantage over the closest contender. Of note, finally, the performance of the third Kawasaki Racing Team rider, David Salom, who secured tenth place in both races to be the fastest EVO rider. The FIM World Supersport Championship race was won by Michael Vd Mark astride his Honda CBR600RR for Pata Honda World Supersport Team, who managed to relegate Frenchman Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport) and Englishman Kev Coghlan (DMC Panavto-Yamaha) to the spots behind him.
Posted on: Tue, 27 May 2014 19:46:17 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015