Donington WSBK: Rea wins incident-filled Race 2
Jonathan Rea ended Tom Sykes' nine-race victory streak at Donington Park after winning the Sunday World Superbike race on his home track.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Thanks to a crash caused by a tyre failure while running second in the Saturday race, Kawasaki rider Rea had to start from 10th on the grid.
However, the Northern Irishman made a rapid recovery as he took the lead by the end of Lap 2, and quickly pulled away from Yamaha's Michael van der Mark.
The Dutchman was soon demoted by Sykes, the Kawasaki duo then rapidly pulling away from the rest of the field.
Sykes consistently closed the gap to Rea throughout the race, but the latter still had an advantage of a second at the finish, ending his teammate's dominant streak at the track.
A further 11 seconds behind, van der Mark lost the final podium position on the penultimate lap to Chaz Davies, who dropped down to order after running off track to avoid a collision between Leon Haslam (Puccetti Kawasaki) and Leandro Mercado (Ioda Aprilia).
Van der Mark was followed home by his Yamaha teammate Alex Lowes and MV Agusta rider Leon Camier.
Spanish duo Xavi Fores (Barni Ducati) and Roman Ramos (Kawasaki Go Eleven) finished seventh and eighth respectively, ahead of local guest rider Jake Dixon and Raffaele de Rosa, who took his first top 10 finish since he replaced Markus Reiterberger at Althea BMW two rounds ago.
The race had several notable retirements, such as guest rider and Saturday podium finisher Haslam, who fell after his contact with Mercado.
Mercado later crashed on his own from sixth, while Marco Melandri's bike slowed while running fourth.
Milwaukee Aprilia riders Eugene Laverty and Lorenzo Savadori, as well as Althea BMW's Jordi Torres, also crashed out of the top 10.
Race 2 results
Cla | Driver | Bike | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | 33'53.138 |
2 | Tom Sykes | Kawasaki | 1.601 |
3 | Chaz Davies | Ducati | 12.200 |
4 | Michael van der Mark | Yamaha | 12.984 |
5 | Alex Lowes | Yamaha | 18.953 |
6 | Leon Camier | MV Agusta | 23.971 |
7 | Xavi Fores | Ducati | 29.892 |
8 | Roman Ramos | Kawasaki | 44.742 |
9 | Jake Dixon | Kawasaki | 50.622 |
10 | Raffaele De Rosa | BMW | 51.749 |
11 | Stefan Bradl | Honda | 59.459 |
12 | Riccardo Russo | Yamaha | 1'12.794 |
13 | Ondrej Jezek | Kawasaki | 1'22.719 |
14 | Ayrton Badovini | Kawasaki | 5 laps |
Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia | 8 laps | |
Leandro Mercado | Aprilia | 15 laps | |
Marco Melandri | Ducati | 15 laps | |
Jordi Torres | BMW | 18 laps | |
Eugene Laverty | Aprilia | 20 laps | |
Alex de Angelis | Kawasaki | 21 laps | |
Leon Haslam | Kawasaki | 22 laps | |
Randy Krummenacher | Kawasaki | 23 laps |
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