For Rea it was his 8th win from 10 starts this year, and his 150th WorldSBK race.
Race 2
Unlike today’s opening race which was shortened to 6 laps, Imola race 2 went the full 19 lap distance with the Kawasaki Racing duo once again in command, claiming their second 1-2 finish of the day with Jonathan Rea once again getting the better of Tom Sykes who finshed 2nd, 4.399s behind the current Championship leader.
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), the Spanish WorldSBK rookie
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK) completed an impressive return to racing with 4th after the Italian was once again the top Italian rider.
Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) backed up his impressive race one result with a strong 5th position, with Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing) and Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven) finishing 6th and 7th.
8th and 9th positions were lonely rides for Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing) and Michel Fabrizio (Althea Racing) both collecting their second top ten finishes of the day with Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) completing the top ten.
Santiago Barragan (Grillini SBK Team), and the BMW Team Toth pairing of Imre Toth and Gabor Rizmayer were the final riders to finish, claiming 11th to 13th positions.
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 x points.
There may be two weeks between Imola and Donington Park, but keep checking worldsbk.com regularly for all the latest news from the eni FIM Superbike World Championship, interviews an exclusive videos.
Race 1
The opening race at Imola, the Acerbis Italian Round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship resulted in victory for championship leader Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) after a the race was initially red flagged and restarted because of a crash involving David Salom (Team Pedercini Kawasaki), who fell off his factory ZX-10R at Rivazza on lap 11. After being taken to the Medical Centre, the Spaniard was diagnosed with a left radius bone fracture and a deep elbow contusion.
The pace in the restart was electric, as the Kawasaki pairing of Sykes and Rea pushed each other to the limit. A lap record on lap 2 for Rea saw him pass his team mate only for Sykes to respond with an even faster lap to pile on the pressure. A tense final lap saw Rea cling on to claim his 22nd career win ahead of Sykes with Davide Giugliano who produced a determined ride to claim 3rd and the final podium place on his return to the WorldSBK paddock.
Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) made changes during the short delay, the British rider looked more comfortable, finishing fourth ahead of the Pata Honda machine of reigning World Champion Sylvain Guintoli, who moved up from 15th on the original starting grid to fifth. Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) scored a solid ten points in sixth.
Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Ducati) was part of a six rider group that was fighting for fifth, the reigning FIM Superstock 1000cc Cup winner taking seventh ahead of Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing Ducati), Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) and Michel Fabrizio, who took a solid tenth position on his one-off ride, replacing the injured Nico Terol.
Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki), Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Santiago Barragan (Grillini SBK Team Kawasaki), Christophe Ponsson (Team Pedercini) and Imre Toth (BMW Team Toth) rounded out the point scoring finishers.
Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) was running in sixth in the early stages of the first part of race 1 before a mistake dropped him down the order, the Spanish WorldSBK rookie re-grouped before crashing out unhurt with 11 laps to go. He along with Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team) were unable to take part in the restart.
WorldSBK Imola - Race 11 - Jonathan Rea Kawasaki Racing Team
2 - Tom Sykes Kawasaki Racing Team +0.482
3 - Davide Giugliano Aruba.it Racing - Ducati Superbike Team +3.945