Laguna Seca WSBK: Sykes leads Ducatis in red-flagged race, Rea retires

Starting from pole, Sykes lead the first couple of laps but gave up the position to Davide Giugliano before the red flag stopped the race.

The interruption was due to safety conditions following a crash from Pawel Szkopek at Turn 6.

The Team Toth entrant was the third rider to crash as Michael van der Mark and Alex de Angelis both had accidents. In addition, Leon Camier retired with a mechanical problem on the opening lap.

Sykes reclaimed the lead at the restart but Giugliano fought back in just a few corners.

Giugliano failed to shake off Sykes but before the Briton could attempt an overtake Jonathan Rea made a brave double move at the Corkscrew.

The Kawasaki duo then exchanged positions a couple of times before Rea ended up going wide into the gravel and, even though he managed to rejoin, he was forced to stop with issues to his bike.

Sykes and Giugliano spent the rest of the race separated by less than a second with the Italian putting increasing pressure during the final stages.

However, instead of claiming the lead, Giugliano lost out to Chaz Davies, who recovered from a slow second start to join the lead group for the last five laps.

Davies ran wide at the Corkscrew chicane and even though he fought back, it was Giugliano starting the final lap in second.

He failed to pass Sykes and settled for second with Davies completing the podium.

Xavi Fores brought a third Ducati into the top four ahead of Nicky Hayden, Jordi Torres and Van der Mark, the latter rejoining the field at the second start.

Niccolo Canepa finished eighth with Alex Lowes falling at the final turn of the race when he tried to overtake his Yamaha teammate.

The Kawasaki bikes of Anthony West and Roman Ramous rounded out the top 10.