Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli made up for his earlier disappointment of not getting on to the top step of the podium in the opening race by taking a dominant win in the final World Superbike race at Phillip Island. The Kawasaki duo of Loris Baz and Tom Sykes completed the rostrum, with the reigning champ finishing in third. But the race was shortened by seven laps, due to a red flag caused by an engine blow-out from the Voltcom Suzuki of Eugene Laverty.
Initially it was Aprilia’s Marco Melandri who got away at the front followed by Ducati's Davide Giugliano and Guintoli, on lap one. But that was not going to last as Guintoli was obviously out for revenge after coming third to the Italian in race one. Melandri went wide, on lap two, letting Kawasaki’s Loris Baz go into third, with Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea in fourth, and race one victor Eugene Laverty in fifth.
Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes went wide at the Honda hairpin on the opening lap, meaning he had a challenge on his hands to work his way through the pack after going back down to seventeenth.
By lap four Melandri went wide, leaving a path free for Rea and Laverty to go into third and fourth respectively. But elsewhere there was a mini British battle for seventh, between Ducati’s Chaz Davies, Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam and Sykes, with the Welshman having the speed on lap five. Only a lap later Lowes decided to join the mix, having clawed his way from the bottom half of the grid.
With fifteen laps to go Baz took the lead on the Southern loop from his fellow Frenchman, Guintoli, and as he made his move Laverty went up on the inside of his former Aprilia team-mate to go second, pushing Guintoli down to third. On the same lap Melandri made a mistake and went wide on Honda corner, ending his chance of a podium.
By lap nine Laverty made a move on Baz which stuck, pushing his way to the front, and in a provisional winning position. Davies steadily made his way up the grid, with Sykes in tow, with both Brits pushing their way into the top five. Lowes was on his way, pushing up through the grid, safely in the top ten, but went wide on lap eleven at Honda and fell back down to fourteenth.
Guintoli was not giving up on a race win, and out paced Baz to go back into second and started to seek Laverty, who remained in the lead, but only till lap fourteen when the Aprilia rider took to the sharp end. Davies who was going so well in fourth slipped back to eighth, just behind his former BMW team-mate Melandri.
With ten laps left Pata Honda team-mates Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam were locked together for sixth. Haslam’s crew were in a race against time to fix his bike, after he crashed in the earlier race, bending the chassis.
But Laverty’s luck was not to last, and he experienced an engine blow out, while in second on lap sixteen, putting an abrupt end to his World Superbike weekend, and the red flags came swiftly out.
The race came to an end as there were only seven laps remaining, and Guintoli was declared the winner, followed by Baz and Sykes. It was a solid result for the Pata Honda boys, as Rea and Haslam finished the shortened final race in fifth and sixth respectively. With Davies and Melandri hot on their heels. Red Devils Roma’s Toni Elias and leading EVO machine of Kawasaki’s David Salom rounded off the top ten. Lowes ended the weekend in thirteenth.
