Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty finally got the better of Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes and GoldBet BMW’s Marco Melandri as he clinched victory in the second World Superbike race at Monza this afternoon.
The start of the race was reminiscent to that of race one, with Laverty leading the way followed by Sykes, with Melandri and Aprilia team-mate Sylvain Guintoli hot on his tail. Again, like in the first race this morning the group of four edged away from the rest of the pack and a battle ensued for the top spot once again.
Laverty led till lap eight, when Guintoli took the lead coming out of Parabolica, and the Frenchman remained at the front of the quartet till there were three laps remaining. But on the penultimate lap, the Irishman decided to make his move coming into the Ascari chicane and finally got the better of his Aprilia colleague.
Sykes and Melandri were not far behind, but on the final lap Guintoli was pushed to fourth, as he was overtaken by Sykes, who then went wide at Variante Della Roggia, leaving Melandri and Laverty battling it out for first. The Aprilia rider was not going to let the former MotoGP racer get past and burst out of Parabolica to clinch the win, leaving Melandri to take second spot on the podium, followed by Sykes.
Red Devils Roma rider Michel Fabrizio finished the final race of the day in fifth, after GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies crashed out on lap eleven, on turn 5. The Welshman did make a few mistakes and run wide on several occasions, and found himself in eighth position. Davies did manage to claw his way up to fifth, overtaking Fabrizio and Althea Racing’s Davide Giugliano with eight laps left, before dropping his bike for the second time this race weekend.
Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier did find himself as high as sixth on lap nine, but could not find the pace to keep up with Giugliano and Fabrizio, and on the penultimate lap dropped to seventh as he crossed the line. Kawasaki’s Loris Baz had a solid time out on track, as he crossed the line behind Camier in eighth, after starting the race from the pit lane, after his bike failed to start during the warm up laps. Ducati Alstare rider Ayrton Badovini and MR-Racing’s Max Neukirchner ended the race safely in the points, and rounded off the top ten.
It was not a good race for the Pata Honda team, as both bikes failed to stay on track long enough to see the chequered flag. Firstly Jonathan Rea, who was battling for fifth with Davies, entered the pits on lap five after experiencing clutch issues, he did attempt to go back out with eleven laps remaining, but quickly made his way back to the garage, which saw his race end without any points. Not long after Rea retired his team-mate Kosuke Akiyoshi crashed at Lesmo 2. The Japanese rider was standing in for the injured Leon Haslam.
Akiyoshi and Davies were not the only riders to fall foul of the Monza circuit, Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Jules Cluzel crashed at Lesmo 2, and Effenbert Liberty Racing’s Mark Aitchison retired with a technical problem on lap fifteen.
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