Rea celebrates his 150th WorldSBK race with another win

The second WorldSBK race of the Acerbis Italian Round went the full 19-lap distance, with the Kawasaki Racing duo claiming their second 1-2 finish of the day as Jonathan Rea once again got the better of Tom Sykes with a comfortable 4.399s lead at the line. For Rea it was the eighth win from ten starts, which also completed his third double of the year.

After a second technical fault for Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team), the final podium position went to Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) who claimed his career’s first rostrum finish as he crossed the line third ahead of Italians Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team), Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) and Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing Ducati).

Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki), Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Ducati), Michel Fabrizio (Althea Racing Ducati) and Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) completed the top ten.

Sylvain Guintoli and his Pata Honda team-mate Michael van der Mark both crashed out before half distance as did Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils). A number of other retirements meant only 13 riders completed the race.

In the championship standings Jonathan Rea heads to his home round at Donington Park with a stretched points advantage after his double race win, the gap to his nearest rival Leon Haslam is 87 points.

Jonathan Rea #65 - Kawasaki Racing Team
Race 1 1st – Race 2 1st

“It has been incredible this weekend and I do not know what to say because this kind of run has never happened to me before. The key to the weekend was working hard with Pere and Paolo Friday and Saturday to make sure we had a package we could fight with. I was honestly a little bit worried about the six lap first race because we were not really set up to be so strong in the beginning of the race. In race two I watched the gap behind and Arturo was giving me great signals from pitlane. When the gap got to one second I thought ‘keep going and no mistakes’."

Tom Sykes #66 - Kawasaki Racing Team
Race 1 2nd – Race 2 2nd

“We made some improvements at this round and I am very happy. Jonathan rode a strong race in race two and we had a big gap to the guys behind. In the end I just had to accept that this was our limit today. The good thing is we have improved from previous events so I think we are heading in the right direction. Still there are some minor things to change but on the whole we have addressed some of our limitations and in Donington at the next round we will keep working. We improved some small things but small things at this level make an incredible difference. To take the wins would have been better, but I am happy.”

Davide Giugliano #34 - Aruba.it Racing - Ducati SBK
Race 1 3rd – Race 2 4th

“I’m really pleased with the podium, which on a personal level is like a win for me. After the first ‘heat’ I was already tired and the second part of the race was extremely difficult, I couldn’t have done any more. I was undecided as to whether to do race 2 at all as the first race really wore me out, but thanks to the Clinica Mobile’s help and the support of all the fans here, I was actually able to complete race 2, in fourth place. It’s been an important weekend for us, and has helped us see that we can fight for the top positions at every round.”

WorldSBK Imola - Race 2

1 - Jonathan Rea Kawasaki Racing Team
2 - Tom Sykes Kawasaki Racing Team +4.399
3 - Jordi Torres Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils +26.020

Standings (5 of 13 rounds completed)

1 - Jonathan Rea Kawasaki Racing Team - 240
2 - Leon Haslam Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils - 153
3 - Tom Sykes Kawasaki Racing Team - 128

WSBK