Kawasaki Racing’s Tom Sykes took a scrappy World Superbike race one win from his team-mate Jonathan Rea at Donington Park, and made history as the Yorkshireman is the only rider in the series to have five back-to-back wins at the Leicestershire track.
Throughout the majority of the race the pair were neck and neck on track, but with five laps remaining Sykes found that added pace to edge ahead and had a 3.7 second advantage over Rea at the flag. But the lap record was broken by Rea after a super quick 1’27.914, going one tenth under Sykes previous record from two years ago.
Aruba.it Ducati’s Chaz Davies bagged his first World Superbike podium at the track and finished in third, three seconds behind the ZX-10R of Rea. Local rider Red Devils Aprilia’s Leon Haslam was at the sharp end for most of the 23 lapper, but he is still suffering from one broken and two cracked ribs and in the last half of the race slipped back off the pace to end race one in fourth, with BMW Motorrad’s Ayrton Badovini completing the top five.
The Italian was locked in a battle for fifth with Derby-based Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes and even though the riders diced with each other over the course of the track activities he lost out on the final lap at the Esses. MV Agusta’s Leon Camier made a mistake early on but pushed back to finish ninth, just behind Pata Honda’s Sylvain Guintoli but in front of Team Pedercini’s David Salom.
At first it was Sykes who got the hole-shot ahead of his team-mate Rea but Haslam was not giving up and overtook Sykes at Hollywood and ploughed on ahead to take the lead. But Rea was also on a hot lap and at Redgate went into the lead.
Ducati man Chaz Davies got the better of his team-mate on the Wheatcroft straight to go in to fourth on the third rotation and began to close down on Sykes. On the fourth lap Sykes out braked Haslam at Redgate to regain second and had his garage partner as his next target.
Meanwhile further down the field Lowes was pressing on Giugliano and made a move that stuck at the Foggy Esses with 17 laps remaining to go into fourth. The battle for the top step of the podium was far from over and Sykes went into the lead once again, getting the better of Rea at Coppice on lap six of 23.
With ten laps to go the duelling Kawasaki pair pulled away from Haslam and had a two second advantage with both bikes neck and neck out on the Leicestershire track, and the leading riders were lapping one second quicker than Haslam and Davies.
Meanwhile the fight for the last step on the podium was heating up and on lap 17 Welshman Davies overtook Haslam going into Redgate, and slowly began to edge away from the Smalley rider.
Pata Honda’s Michael Van Der Mark suffered a crash at the Esses and even though he got back on his machine the damage had been done and he retired to the pits. He was not the only rider to suffer bike issues as Aruba.it Ducati’s Davide Giugliano ended up in the garage to have a wheel change. He then attempted to return to the race after some time in the pits. Former MCE British Superbike rider Matteo Baiocco also crashed unhurt at Goddards while inside the top ten.
