Race Two Podium Extends Championship Lead For Rea

In a wet second Superbike World Championship race at Sepang, Kawasaki Racing Team rider Jonathan Rea secure third place and a strong points score to extend his championship lead to 42 points. Nicky Hayden (Honda) took victory from Davide Giugliano (Ducati).

 

With no previous wet experience to call on at the resurfaced Sepang circuit the official Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R rider had little time to find a good set-up on full wet tyres. Starting from third place Jonathan made a good launch from the startline in search of more podium success.

 

Rea led early on but was passed by Hayden before the end of the first lap.  He was then able to hold onto a good pace for most of the race, changing places with Ducati pairing Giugliano and Chaz Davies, even fighting back in the later stages to reclaim third place and a podium from his nearest championship rival Davies. In doing so he managed to keep his points total moving ahead once again and he now has 257 points to Davies’ 215, after six rounds.

 

The next round will be held at Donington Park in the UK, over the weekend of 27-29 May.

 

Jonathan Rea stated: “It is so difficult in a weekend when you have all dry sessions, a dry race one - and then two hours before race two a monsoon comes in! I am proud of my team because they were so reactive to the changing conditions. I feel we got it quite close and my bike was giving me quite a lot of feedback out there. The strategy in the wet was just to do the rhythm. It was important to keep the corner entry traction off the tyre, as normally that is the first area that suffers. So when I set off it was just about managing everything. Nicky was too far in front for me to want to really grit my teeth and go for him. I was happy with our performance and that was the maximum we could do. Maybe if I had the race again I could have gone with Nicky in the beginning but third was the result we got today and we achieved our target for the weekend. That was to increase our championship lead, so I am happy we did that.”

Pole position : Tom Sykes - 2m 02.246 - 163.235 km/h
Fastest lap : Davide Giugliano - 2m 16.716 - 145.958 km/h
Circuit record lap : 2016 Tom Sykes - 2m 03.637 - 161.400 km/h
Circuit Best Lap : 2016 Tom Sykes - 2m 02.246 - 163.230 km/h
Temperature : Air 26°C / Track 30°C
Humidity : 89%
Crowd : 23,762

Event results - Round 6 - Race 1
1 Nicky Hayden 37m 04.047 USA HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
2 Davide Giugliano 1.254 ITA DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team
3 Jonathan Rea 3.684 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
4 Chaz Davies 5.720 GBR DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team
5 Anthony West 15.989 AUS KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
6 Michael van der Mark 19.979 NED HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
7 Alex De Angelis 20.028 RSM APRILIA IodaRacing Team
8 Tom Sykes 23.011 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
9 Leon Camier 24.045 GBR MV AGUSTA MV Agusta Reparto Corse
10 Markus Reiterberber 25.139 GER BMW Althea BMW Racing Team
11 Xavi Fores 25.208 ESP DUCATI BARNI Racing Team
12 Joshua Brookes 25.835 AUS BMW Milwaukee BMW
13 Jordi Torres 26.757 ESP BMW Althea BMW Racing Team
14 Lorenzo Savadori 30.729 ITA APRILIA IodaRacing Team
15 Josh Hook 1m 05.347 AUS KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
16 Gianluca Vizziello 1m 17.761 ITA KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
17 Luca Scassa 1m 18.121 ITA DUCATI VFT Racing
18 Pawel Szkopek 1m 31.412 POL YAMAHA Szkopek POLand Position
19 Dominic Schmitter 2m 07.000 SUI KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
20 Saeed Al Sulaiti 2m 08.836 QAR KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
21 Imre Toth 1 Lap HUN YAMAHA Team Toth
22 Alex Lowes DNF GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
23 Karel Abraham DNF CZE BMW Milwaukee BMW
Championship standings
1 Jonathan Rea 257 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Chaz Davies 215 pts GBR DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team
3 Tom Sykes 187 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
4 Michael van der Mark 125 pts NED HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
5 Davide Giugliano 118 pts ITA DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team
6 Nicky Hayden 115 pts USA HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
7 Jordi Torres 103 pts ESP BMW Althea BMW Racing Team
8 Leon Camier 73 pts GBR MV AGUSTA MV Agusta Reparto Corse
9 Alex Lowes 70 pts GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
10 Lorenzo Savadori 62 pts ITA APRILIA IodaRacing Team
11 Sylvain Guintoli 58 pts FRA YAMAHA Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team
12 Xavi Fores 56 pts ESP DUCATI BARNI Racing Team
13 Markus Reiterberber 53 pts GER BMW Althea BMW Racing Team
14 Alex De Angelis 41 pts RSM APRILIA IodaRacing Team
15 Joshua Brookes 39 pts AUS BMW Milwaukee BMW
16 Roman Ramos 36 pts ESP KAWASAKI Team Go Eleven
17 Anthony West 18 pts AUS KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
18 Karel Abraham 18 pts CZE BMW Milwaukee BMW
19 Matteo Baiocco 12 pts ITA DUCATI VFT Racing
20 Lucas Mahias 9 pts FRA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
21 Luca Scassa 3 pts ITA DUCATI VFT Racing
22 Josh Hook 2 pts AUS KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
23 Sylvain Barrier 2 pts FRA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
24 Mike Jones 2 pts AUS DUCATI Desmo Sport Ducati
25 Dominic Schmitter 1 pts SUI KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
26 Matthieu Lussiana 1 pts FRA BMW Team ASPI
27 Anucha Nakcharoensri 0 pts THA YAMAHA Yamaha Thailand Racing Team
28 Sahustchai Kaewjaturapom 0 pts THA KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
29 Saeed Al Sulaiti 0 pts QAR KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
30 Peter Sebestyen 0 pts HUN YAMAHA Team Toth
31 Pawel Szkopek 0 pts POL YAMAHA Szkopek POLand Position
32 Imre Toth 0 pts HUN YAMAHA Team Toth
33 Gianluca Vizziello 0 pts ITA KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team