Reigning WorldSBK Champion Jonathan Rea put in masterclass to equal Laguna Seca race one winner Chaz Davies to bag the second race victory today, clipping his way from eighth on the grid to the lead on the third lap before pulling away from Tom Sykes to cross the line with a four-second lead.Rea’s second place behind Davies yesterday meant the pair, and Sykes, formed the third row of the grid and Sykes got the best start, hitting the front on lap one while Aruba Ducati’s Davies got caught up behind Xavi Fores and by the time he got past, Rea had left the building, saying a change to the front end of his ZX-10RR had made the difference.
Davies was left to try and reel in Sykes and had to bridge a one-second gap with four laps left. The Welshman was pushed the front of his Panigale hard and had the gap down to eight-tenths with three left but it looked like the front Pirelli was crying enough while Sykes was just doing enough to keep his lead.
Sykes had a one-second advantage over Davies when the took the chequered flag and loses a further five points to his Kawasaki team-mate while pulling away from Davies in third place. Davies said in parc ferme he just didn’t have the pace to live with Rea even after the traffic, but some issues needed to be looked into.
Fourth-placed Marco Melandri had a big moment on lap two, almost getting pinged out of the seat of his Panigale at turn six and had to fight his way back from ninth but did it with not too much fuss, moving through the pack to finish 17s behind the leader.
Xavi Fores lost out to Melandri as well but had a four-second advantage over Eugene Laverty in sixth place, bouncing back from his crash yesterday. Tati Mercado was another place further back with Lorenzo Savadori in eighth.
Alex Lowes won a race-long scrap with Pata Yamaha team-mate Michael Van Der Mark, scratching home with half a second in hand while Stefan Bradl, who had the pace of the R1s early on, slipped back to 11th. Leon Camier suffered a technical problem at turn six and didn’t finish.
Rea also set a new lap record of 1'23.275.
