It was mission accomplished for Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty as he came to the final World Superbike round at Jerez to win both races, and the Irishman did exactly that, and did the double in a dominant fashion this afternoon, and ended the year second in the overall championship standings.
Newly crowned Superbike champ, Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes led the race from the hole shot with Laverty right on his tail. With eight laps to go the race winner’s team-mate Sylvain Guintoli decided to join the party, but he was not strong enough and soon the leading duo ploughed on ahead.
But on lap fourteen Laverty decided to make his move, and successfully did that on Sykes at Ducados and he stayed in the lead all the way till the chequered flag. On the penultimate lap Laverty had a two second advantage over Sykes to take a comfortable win, with Sykes and Guintoli completing the final steps on the podium.
Red Devils Roma rider Toni Elias had a rather lonely race in fourth followed by GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies. The tall Welshman did endure a battle with crocked Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier for fifth when the Powys based rider got the better of the Kent lad on lap ten. Davies ends the season in fifth overall, with Camier ending the year in eleventh in the series. Pedercini’s Mark Aitchison and Althea Racing’s Davide Giugliano rounded off the top ten in race two.
Again it was a case of déjà-vu for Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam. In a repeat performance of race one the Smalley rider ended up in the garage with another technical issue, meaning he came away from the final weekend with zero points.
Goldbet BMW’s Marco Melandri decided not to go out in the final World Superbike race of the season, as he was in too much pain with an ankle injury. The Italian sustained the injury after falling up some stairs. But he did make it onto the second spot on the rostrum in the first race, earlier this afternoon.