Photo: Yamaha
It seems that, once again, the real race in World Superbike this summer will be for second place, because Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea is consistently taking the top spot every weekend.
Rea won Superpole at Imola this weekend, and took first place in both races. His teammate Tom Sykes is also picking up speed after an early-season slump. Sykes was second in Race 1 and third in Race 2.
Otherwise, in Race 1, Marco Melandri (Ducati) was third, Chaz Davies (Ducati) fourth and Xavi Fores (Ducati) fifth.
Race 2 saw Chaz Davies (Ducati) in second, then Sykes, then Fores, then Jordi Torres in fifth on his MV Agusta.
The end result was another big jump in the standings for Rea, who is now sitting in first overall, with 209 points. Next-closest is Davies, with a measly 162 points, then Sykes with 137. At this rate, unless Rea suffers a disaster, he will handily stomp the rest of the pack.
It’s a bit surprising, as everyone expected Ducati to be much more resurgent this year, and also figured Yamaha would give the field a good run. But the highest-ranked Yamaha is Michael Van Der Mark in sixth, with 113 points.
As for World Supersport, Jules Cluzel (Yamaha) won, with Federico Caricasulo second (Yamaha) and Raffaele De Rosa (MV Agusta) third.  Randy Krummenacher currently leads the series, with 81 points (he’s also a Yamaha rider).
This weekend was the final race for Kenan Sofluoglu, who’s long been a threat to win any race in World Supersport. He’s had serious trouble recovering from injuries this year, and announced this would be his last race. He took a DNF this weekend aboard his Kawasaki, with no lap time recorded. Here’s hoping the Turkish rider will end up on top in whatever endeavours he pursues next.
Full race results and other stats are available at WorldSBK.com.
Interesting that the article reads that Yamaha should be doing better this year. I agree as the picture above shows the Moto GP bikes which should really be an advantage in World Superbike, lol.
Ooooops grabbed a shot from the wrong Yamaha presser. Fixed now, thanks. Although I don’t know how much of an advantage it would really be …