Rea and Lowes Shine in Brno
Jonathan Rea took his 60th career win while Alex Lowes managed to emerge victorious for the first time in his WSBK career
Race One
There was a lot of drama at the beginning of the first race as it was restarted twice before being shortened to 16 laps. The race finally started with much confusion; however, the Kawasaki duo of Jonathan rea and Tom Sykes seemed focused as both of them pulled away from the pack fairly quickly. With rea in the lead, Sykes was running in second, followed by Marco Melandri of aruba.it ducati in third. On lap four, Melandri overtook Sykes to move up into P2, pushing the Kawasaki rider to P3. From here, the positions never changed. rea built a sizeable lead to win the first race with a margin of 5.381 seconds. it was a special win for the northern irish rider for he was able to enter history books by bagging his 60th career win, overtaking carl Fogarty’s record of 59 career wins. Melandri eventually finished second and Sykes third.
Race Two
The second race was no fun for the Kawasaki duo as the two riders collided, resulting in Jonathan rea retiring from the race. Sykes was luckier as he survived the crash and continued to race; however, he was only able to finish 16th.
Meanwhile, at the front it was Pata Yamaha’s alex lowes who dominated the second race right from the beginning. lowes’s team-mate, Michael van der Mark, took the lead on lap one. On lap two, lowes overtook him and moved into the lead. From there lowes continued to quicken his pace and pull away. While the two Yamaha riders started to pull away, the fight behind them started to heat up. chaz davies of aruba.it started chasing van der Mark and his team-mate, Marco Melandri. By lap five, davies went past Melandri, who outbraked himself and ended in the gravel. davies held on to P3 all the way, eventually grabbing the final place on the podium.
alex lowes, who was being challenged by Melandri in the opening stages, also got the advantage after the italian rider ran wide. lowes eventually claimed the victory, his first in WSBK. Second place on the podium went to Michael van der Mark, who crossed the finish line 2.1 seconds after lowes.