Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes once again was the fastest rider out on track and dominated the final World Superbike race of the day at Magny-Cours and in doing so extends his championship lead to 37 points.
Huddersfield’s finest crossed the line eleven seconds in front of the Aprilia duo of Eugene Laverty and Sylvain Guintoli. The team-mates could not keep up with the extraordinary pace of the Kawasaki, as Sykes continued to smash lap records, with his best time of 1’37.932.
Sykes led from the opening lap and made sure he was at the sharp end at the very start. Initially it was Guintoli who was a close second, with his Irish colleague right behind, then Laverty made a pass at the Adelaide Hairpin to go into second.
The French rider was not giving up easily and attempted a move at the Nurburging, but went wide and ended up losing a second from Laverty. But Guintoli was able to re-group and made a move on lap nineteen on Laverty, to the delight of the home crowds.
But all the drama happened on the final lap, the white flags came out as rain started to fall heavily, and then the red flag appeared as all the rider’s were out on slicks and it became a safety issue. But just as the flags appeared Guintoli and Laverty both crashed out on the same corner, but their results still count as they did not cause the red flag.
Elsewhere Althea Racing’s Davide Giugliano was fighting for fourth place with GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies, and the Italian successfully held off the Welsh rider till the end. Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Vincent Philippe finished in the points in a respectable sixth place. GoldBet BMW’s Marco Melandri was in fifth, but went wide on lap six, and ended up re-joining in seventh. Red Devils rider Toni Elias, Lanzi and Badovini rounded off the top ten.
Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam was battling for seventh, but on lap eight experienced a technical problem at the Adelaide Hairpin and had to watch the remainder of the race from the pits. But six laps later his team-mate Michel Fabrizio also succumbed to a technical issue and reverted to the garage.
Ducati Alstare’s Michele Pirro crashed on the first lap, and eleven rotations later, Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Jules Cluzel fell, but was unhurt and later re-joined the race, finishing in fourteenth.
