Buriram WSBK: Sykes fends off Rea to win wild battle

Sykes and Rea, along with Ducati rider Chaz Davies, were embroiled in a mighty scrap for honours that raged throughout the latter half of the 20-lap encounter at Buriram.

After seizing the lead from poleman Michael van der Mark at the start, it was Sykes who held the advantage initially, Rea not making his first attempt to pass until half-distance.

The Ulsterman took the lead for the first time with eight laps remaining at Turn 12, only to run wide the following lap at Turn 3 - allowing Sykes and Davies both to pass.

Two laps later, Rea was able to pick off Davies, whose Ducati Panigale R was clearly lacking the straight-line speed of the Kawasaki ZX-10Rs, before stalking Sykes in the closing stages.

At Turn 5 on the penultimate lap, Rea made another passing attempt on Sykes but once again ran wide, and did likewise at the same point on the track on the final tour.

Sykes then used the entire width of  the circuit to keep his teammate at bay for the remainder of the lap, doing enough to hold off the reigning champion by a mere 0.190s at the finish line.

Davies was third, just a further tenth back but unable to capitalise on a scrappy last lap for both Kawasaki men.

Van der Mark was the closest challenger to the Kawasakis in the early stages, but after being passed by Davies gradually faded, the Dutchman sealing fourth place five seconds behind the lead battle.

His Honda teammate Nicky Hayden was fifth, ahead of the sole surviving Yamaha of Sylvain Guintoli, whose teammate Alex Lowes retired at mid-distance with an apparent mechanical problem.

Althea BMW teammates Markus Reiterberger and Jordi Torres completed the top eight, followed by Lorenzo Salvadori (Aprilia) and Davide Giugliano (Ducati).

Race results:

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time
1	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10R	31:33.493
2	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10R	+0.190
3	Chaz Davies	Ducati Team	Ducati 1199 Panigale R	+0.314
4	Michael van der Mark	Honda World Superbike Team	Honda CBR1000RR SP	+5.199
5	Nicky Hayden	Honda World Superbike Team	Honda CBR1000RR SP	+10.643
6	Sylvain Guintoli	Pata Yamaha Official WSBK Team	Yamaha YZF-R1	+13.068
7	Markus Reiterberger	Althea BMW Racing Team	BMW S1000 RR	+14.481
8	Jordi Torres	Althea BMW Racing Team	BMW S1000 RR	+14.504
9	Lorenzo Savadori	IodaRacing Team	Aprilia RSV4 RF	+21.694
10	Davide Giugliano	Ducati Team	Ducati 1199 Panigale R	+23.794
11	Leon Camier	MV Agusta	MV Agusta 1000 F4	+27.205
12	Roman Ramos	Team Go Eleven	Kawasaki ZX-10R	+32.309
13	Matteo Baiocco	VFT Racing	Ducati 1199 Panigale R	+36.672
14	Alex de Angelis	IodaRacing Team	Aprilia RSV4 RF	+38.761
15	Karel Abraham	Milwaukee BMW	BMW S1000 RR	+39.789
16	Josh Brookes	Milwaukee BMW	BMW S1000 RR	+42.840
17	Sylvain Barrier	Pedercini Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10R	+46.158
18	Anucha Nakcharoensri	Yamaha Thailand Racing Team	Yamaha YZF-R1	+1:04.628
19	Dominic Schmitter	Grillini Racing Team	Kawasaki ZX-10R	+1:21.675
20	Peter Sebestyen	Team Toth	Yamaha YZF-R1	+1:21.687
21	Sahustchai Kaewjaturaporn	Grillini Racing Team	Kawasaki ZX-10R	+1 lap
22	Imre Toth	Team Toth	Yamaha YZF-R1	+1 lap
R	Xavi Fores	Barni Racing Team	Ducati 1199 Panigale R
R	Alex Lowes	Pata Yamaha Official WSBK Team	Yamaha YZF-R1
R	Saeed Al Sulaiti	Pedercini Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10R