WSBK: Germany, France
At the German round of WSBK, it was Ducati v Kawasaki in race one. In race two the Japanese team once again took on Ducati and Aprilia. The outcome was quite interesting
RACE ONE The first race of the 10th round of WSBK saw Ducati’s Chaz Davies play with Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes throughout the race. It all started when Davies, who started on pole, took an early lead from Tom Sykes, who is known for pulling away from the crowd early in the race. However, Davies didn’t just stop there; by the end of lap two, he was already leading the race with two seconds separating him and Kawasaki Racing Team’s Tom Sykes. Meanwhile, championship leader and lead Kawasaki rider Jonathan Rea tried catching up with Sykes and Davies. After being in P3 for the first six laps, Rea suffered a tumble that made this Irish rider retire on lap seven. This promoted Lorenzo Savadori to third place but, unfortunately, even he crashed out of the race on lap seven. This opened up P3 for Nicky Hayden, who wasted neither time nor energy to move up a place.
By the end of 21 laps, the first three positions remained unchanged and it
was Davies who claimed victory after a flawless performance which moved him up, closer to Sykes, in the points tally. Sykes tried his best but with a gap of over 10 seconds, he needed a miracle to catch up with Davies. He had to be content with a second-place finish. Hayden brought his Honda home in third place, earning yet another WSBK podium this season.
RACE TWO
The second race of the German round was even more dramatic as the clouds opened up and the track was soaking wet. The race start was initially aborted as the bike setup was changed from dry to wet. As soon as the lights went out after this initial delay, the two Kawasaki ZX-10R motorcycles took off like rockets. Rea and Sykes were running ahead but Sykes took a tumble on the very first lap due to cold tyres. He managed to get up and get back in the race but, unfortunately, the damage to his bike did not allow the Yorkshire rider to get back to winning pace. Rea, however, kept his calm and continued. The race was really action-packed during the first six laps as many riders went down. A total of six riders crashed out of the race, including IodaRacing
Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori and Ducati’s Davide Giugliano. By lap seven, the order was Rea followed by IodaRacing Aprilia’s Alex de Angelis, who made his way to second place after having started 18th on the grid. And just like de Angelis, Javier Forés of Barmi Racing team rode his Ducati with caution, which secured him third place. After a gruelling 16-lap race, Rea had claimed victory in the second race of the German round followed by de Angelis, for whom this was his best finish of the season, and in third a very happy Forés, who did his team proud by giving them their first top three finishes this season.