Lausitz WSBK: Davies does the double from ninth
Ducati works rider Chaz Davies completed a clean sweep of the World Superbike round at Lausitzring, fighting his way through from ninth on the grid in the Sunday race.
Photo by: Toni Börner
Davies beat Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea for his second double victory of the season, having previously taken maximum points at Imola.
Starting eighth and ninth on the series' reshuffled Race 2 grid after their battle on Saturday, Rea and Davies needed little time to charge through the order, with the reigning champion third at the end of the opening lap.
On the second lap, Rea picked off the Barni Ducati of Xavi Fores for second and set out after Davies' factory teammate Marco Melandri, who had lined up on pole and maintained his lead off the line.
Rea reeled in Melandri and made the move for the lead at Turn 10 on the fifth lap, with Davies already following the pair close at that point.
Three laps later, Davies was through on Melandri on the inside of the sweeping Turn 9 right-hander, immediately setting out after Rea, who had not managed to break away.
Rea managed to defend successfully until lap 11, when Davies finally found a way past down the inside of Turn 4.
The Welshman's win looked in little doubt from that point on, despite spots of rain emerging late on.
Having slipped behind Davies, Rea was initially under pressure from Melandri, but the reigning champion saw off the challenge from the Italian to finish runner-up, 2.3s behind Davies.
Rea's teammate Tom Sykes was forced to settle for fourth after getting bogged down in the pack early in the race.
Sykes had started seventh and it took him until around halfway point to find his way past the battling group of Leon Camier, Lorenzo Savadori and Fores.
Once in clean air, he coasted home to finish fourth, 14s behind Davies.
Yamaha's Alex Lowes overtook MV Agusta rider Camier on the final lap to finish fifth, with Savadori a tenth off Camier in seventh.
Jordi Torres took eighth, right ahead of former Althea BMW teammate Markus Reiterberger, who was making his return to the series as a wildcard entry.
Fores slumped to 10th at the chequered flag, but did see off Yamaha's Michael van der Mark.
Honda works rider Stefan Bradl, who had skipped Saturday's race due to arm pain, was 13th.
In the standings, Rea leads Sykes by 70 points with four rounds to go, with Davies a further 35 back.
Race results:
Pos. | # | Rider | Bike | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 | Chaz Davies | Ducati | 34'05.220 |
2 | 1 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | 2.290 |
3 | 33 | Marco Melandri | Ducati | 4.388 |
4 | 66 | Tom Sykes | Kawasaki | 14.167 |
5 | 22 | Alex Lowes | Yamaha | 15.786 |
6 | 2 | Leon Camier | MV Agusta | 16.023 |
7 | 32 | Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia | 16.138 |
8 | 81 | Jordi Torres | BMW | 16.900 |
9 | 21 | Markus Reiterberger | BMW | 20.355 |
10 | 12 | Xavi Fores | Ducati | 24.066 |
11 | 60 | Michael van der Mark | Yamaha | 24.885 |
12 | 36 | Leandro Mercado | Aprilia | 35.566 |
13 | 6 | Stefan Bradl | Honda | 36.772 |
14 | 40 | Roman Ramos | Kawasaki | 38.508 |
15 | 35 | Raffaele De Rosa | BMW | 39.613 |
16 | 37 | Ondrej Jezek | Kawasaki | 1'00.744 |
17 | 34 | Davide Giugliano | Honda | 1'01.401 |
18 | 86 | Ayrton Badovini | Kawasaki | 1'01.531 |
19 | 55 | Massimo Roccoli | Yamaha | 1'27.642 |
Ret | 88 | Randy Krummenacher | Kawasaki | - |
Ret | 84 | Riccardo Russo | Yamaha | - |
Ret | 19 | Pawel Szkopek | Yamaha | - |
Ret | 50 | Eugene Laverty | Aprilia | - |
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