ASSEN, The Netherlands – The third round of the 2014 eni FIM Superbike World Championship, which saw an overall attendance of 52,252 spectators, reached its climax on Sunday with the two races held in completely different weather conditions at the Assen TT circuit.
After victory in the first encounter for Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team), Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea came out on top in the rain-hampered, 10-lap Race 2 to secure his fifth WSBK win on his team’s home track. In the same race, Rea’s compatriot Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) scored his maiden podium finish in the series, a brilliant second place.
“It’s been a really good weekend,” Rea said. “To be honest, our dry pace was OK in race one but Sylvain (Guintoli) made such a fast start that I struggled to go with him. When Tom (Sykes) went past I made a big mistake but, after that, my pace until the end was quite similar to theirs.
“The win in race two was really special. For the last laps I just tried to be as smart as I could. This win’s for all those guys who have worked tirelessly to make the CBR as strong as possible. It’s great to be able to give them back some good vibes to roll with into the next part of the season.”
Guintoli took victory in the first race of the day at a drying Assen circuit. The 2013 WSBK runner up climbed on the top step of the podium for the fifth time in his career, the second one this year after the win he scored at Phillip Island in Race 2.
The race was classified dry and as the lights went out it was Guintoli who took the hole-shot with Rea and the Kawasaki Racing Team duo of Loris Baz and Tom Sykes giving chase.
A red flag in the closing laps as Sykes was closing in on the leading Aprilia rider meant the result would stand with Rea finishing third.
Baz took fourth with Toni Elias (Red Devils Roma Aprilia) and Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing Team) eventually classified fifth and sixth respectively a great race long battle.
Niccolò Canepa (Althea Racing Ducati) finished a superb 10th position to end the race as the highest EVO category rider.
Christian Iddon (Team Bimota Alstare), Eugene Laverty (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team) and Fabien Foret (Mahi Team India Kawasaki) all fell.
After a lengthy delay because of heavy rain and with conditions visibly better, compared to the situation that forced the Race Direction to red flag the initial race, the riders started a new Race 2 over a race distance of 10 laps. Eventually it was race one podium finisher Rea that emerged victorious ahead of Lowes and Giugliano, who completed the podium in tricky conditions.
Rea achieved the 12th WSBK race win of his career, the fifth one at the Assen TT Circuit, while Lowes scored his maiden podium finish in the series and Giugliano the first top three placement of his new adventure as factory Ducati rider.
Sykes, Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) and Melandri rounded out the top six.
Guintoli crashed at the chicane on lap 2 but was fortunate enough to be able to remount to salvage ninth at the flag, behind pole sitter Baz, seventh, and Chaz Davies (Ducati Superbike Team), eighth.
In the EVO class, Canepa came home in 10th, having the honour of being the first EVO classified rider in the race.
Rea lies now fourth in the standings, only19 points shy of current leader and reigning Champion Sykes, with Guintoli and Baz second and third, respectively.
Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Supersport Team) won his first World Supersport race after an enthralling early fight with pole-sitter Florian Marino (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres). The Dutch rider had the packed grandstands on their feet as lap by lap he edged away claiming victory by over nine seconds with the added bonus of a new lap record.
Early leader and former champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Mahi Team India Kawasaki) regrouped after a mistake early in the race only to be forced into retirement with a technical problem on lap 13.
Sofuoglu’s departure resulted in a three rider dice for the final few laps with Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta RC – Yakhnich Motorsport), Kev Coghlan (DMC-Panavto Yamaha) and Lorenzo Zanetti (Pata Honda World Supersport Team) to sort out the final place on the podium.
At the flag Marino secured second as Cluzel was classified third ahead of Coghlan and Zanetti. Roberto Rolfo (Go Eleven Kawasaki) finished sixth.
Dutchman Kevin Valk (MTM Kawasaki) sailed to his first podium and first career FIM Stock 1000cc Cup victory at the same time after dominating Sunday’s wet race at Assen. Coming home almost 10 seconds ahead of Ondrej Jezek (Barni Racing Team Ducati) and Matthieu Lussiana (Team Garnier by ASPI Kawasaki), who also relished the wet conditions, Valk has elevated himself to third overall in the standings.
The six-lap race of the Pata European Junior Cup, powered by Honda was held under rainy conditions. Spaniard Augusto Fernandez (WIL Sport) managed to win his first race of the season, the second one in the series so far, edging out Sweden’s Jesper Hubner (Honda Sweden) and pole sitter Marc Miralles (Honda Spain), who is still the points leader.
The next round of the season will take place at Imola in a fortnight’s time (May 9-11).
Superbike Race 1 Results
1.Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia) 16 Laps/72.672km in 25:56.636 (168.067km/h)
2. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) +1.259
3. Jonathan Rea (Honda) +4.116
4. Loris Baz (Kawasaki) +4.459
5. Toni Elias (Aprilia) +23.728
6. Marco Melandri (Aprilia) +25.478
7. Chaz Davies (Ducati) +26.533
8. Leon Haslam (Honda) +26.696
9. Alex Lowes (Suzuki) +27.971
10. Niccolo Canepa (Ducati) +33.479
11. Luca Scassa (Kawasaki) +40.689
12. David Salom (Kawasaki) +40.803
13. Leon Camier (BMW) +41.086
14. Claudio Corti (MV Agusta) +41.410
15. Jeremy Guarnoni (Kawasaki) +41.977
16. Sheridan Morais (Kawasaki) +1:08.454
17. Alessandro Andreozzi (Kawasaki) +1:19.067
18. Kervin Bos (Honda) +1:19.076
19. Geoff May (EBR) +1:29.475
20. Imre Toth (BMW) +1 Lap
RT. Michel Fabrizio (Kawasaki)
RT. Eugene Laverty (Suzuki)
RT. Aaron Yates (EBR)
RT. Peter Sebestyen (BMW)
RT. Davide Giugliano (Ducati)
NS. Fabien Foret(Kawasaki)
SH. Ayrton Badovini (Bimota)
SH. Christian Iddon (Bimota)
Superbike Race 2 Results
1.Jonathan Rea (Honda) 10 Laps/45.420km in 19:09.464 (142.251km/h)
2. Alex Lowes (Suzuki) +2.222
3. Davide Giugliano (Ducati) +4.955
4. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) +13.089
5. Leon Haslam (Honda) +13.639
6. Marco Melandri (Aprilia) +18.041
7. Loris Baz (Kawasaki) +21.837
8. Chaz Davies (Ducati) +26.919
9. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia) +32.766
10. Niccolo Canepa (Ducati) +37.965
11. Kervin Bos (Honda) +44.141
12. Luca Scassa (Kawasaki) +1:23.769
13. Sheridan Morais (Kawasaki) +1:45.062
14. Michel Fabrizio (Kawasaki) +1 Lap
15. David Salom (Kawasaki) +1 Lap
16. Imre Toth (BMW) +1 Lap
RT. Eugene Laverty (Suzuki)
RT. Claudio Corti (MV Agusta)
RT. Leon Camier (BMW)
RT. Alessandro Andreozzi (Kawasaki)
RT. Toni Elias (Aprilia)
RT. Fabien Foret (Kawasaki)
RT. Jeremy Guarnoni (Kawasaki)
SH. Christian Iddon (Bimota)
SH. Ayrton Badovini (Bimota)
World Superbike Standings (Round 3 of 13)
1.Tom Sykes 108
2. Sylvain Guintoli 96
3. Loris Baz 93
4. Jonathan Rea 89
5. Marco Melandri 69
6. Davide Giugliano 59
7. Chaz Davies 47
8. Eugene Laverty 46
9. Leon Haslam 44
10. Alex Lowes 36
11. Toni Elias 34
12. Niccolo Canepa 28
13. David Salom 27
14. Luca Scassa 11
15. Leon Camier 11
16. Sheridan Morais 10
17. Fabien Foret 9
18. Kevin Allerton 6
19. Kervin Bos 5
20. Claudio Corti 5
21. Jeremy Guarnoni 5
22. Michel Fabrizio 2
–From WSBK Press Office
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