Morais podiums, Davies ends Rea’s win streak
DUCATI’S Chaz Davies finally managed to break Jonathan Rea’s run of five straight World Superbike race wins with a superb ride in Race 2 at Motorland Aragon on Sunday, while South African rider Sheridan Morais missed out on his first ever World Supersport victory by less than a tenth of a second.
Rea had maintained his 100 percent record so far in 2017 until Saturday afternoon, by taking advantage of a late crash for Davies, with Marco Melandri on the second works Ducati and Rea’s Kawasaki factory team-mate Tom Sykes completing the podium.
Sunday’s second race went down to the last lap, with Davies making amends for his Race 1 crash as he got the better of world champion Rea in the final two corners.
The pair fought for the lead throughout, with Davies ultimately crossing the line half a second ahead of Rea, to end the Kawasaki rider’s winning streak. Melandri continued his solid comeback season in third place, abound 2.5s down from his winning team-mate.
Factory Yamaha star Lucas Mahias got the better of South Africa’s Sheridan Morais in the very last corner of the Supersport race to win by 0.014s after a racelong battle, with PJ Jacobsen’s MV Agusta a further 0.139 down in third. Mahias, Morais and Jacob- sen were left to fight for the win after several front-running riders crashed.
Scott Deroue (Kawasaki) made history with narrow victory in the first ever World Supersport 300 race.
Three South African riders are entered in this feeder series for 2017, and the best finisher of the trio was Johannesburg’s Dorren Loureiro (Kawasaki) in a solid eighth. Port Shepstone’s Troy Bezuidenhout finished a lap down in 25th and last place, while Cape Town’s Jared Schultz suffered a mechanical issue in practice and wasn’t able to qualify.
The next World Superbikes round is scheduled for the Dutch Assen circuit from April 28 to 30. - Motoring Staff