SBK – Round 5 Results

Together with his teammate Tom Sykes, SBK championship leader Jonathan Rea and the Kawasaki Racing Team took top honours at Imola, Italy despite an incident riddled first race that forced a restart.  Top rivals, Aprilia’s Leon Haslam, and Ducati’s Chaz Davies, the only men other than Rea to win races this year, both struggled throughout the meet.

Jonathan Rea delivered a master class in race domination, winning both rounds of the Italian SBK event this weekend.  The Kawasaki factory team leader owned both qualifying and the races, in particular race two, where he crossed the finish line over four seconds ahead of second place.

Race one was cut short by a red flag, issued due to a serious crash on lap 9.  The restarted event lasted only 6 more laps that saw a terrific battle between Rea and Sykes, both posting lap records.  In the end, Rea pulled away and took home his 7th victory of 2015.  An opportunistic Davide Giulliano, Davies’ Aruba.it Ducati teammate, took third.

Chaz Davies, a winner at Aragon, suffered technical faults in both races that shut him out.  Leon Haslam had difficultly keeping up with the leaders in race one, and finished fourth.  In race two, Haslam collided with another bike and crashed into a gravel trap, hurting his ankle.

His chances of catching up to Rea are slipping, particularly with Sykes gaining consistency and the possibility of an injury.  Jordi Torres, Haslam’s Aprilia stablemate finished the second race in third, but was more than 20 seconds behind.

Rea rider now leads the Superbike World Championship by a staggering 87, having won 8 of the ten races this year.   Haslam is second, with 153 points while Sykes is third with 128.  The Defending champion Silvain Guintoli is trailing in 6th place, 164 points behind.

Current standings: