British rider Jonathan has won the first ever World Superbike race to be held in Thailand and he did it in style with back-to-back race wins at the weekend.

Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) dominated the opening 20-lap encounter at the all-new Chang International Circuit in Buriram at the weekend and then repeated the feat later in the day by also winning race two.

Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) and Rea’s team mate Tom Sykes joined him on the podium, making it an all-British celebration.

Rea led from the start, building up a two-second lead over the chasing pack by the end of lap five and winning by 6.329s at the flag. Courtesy of the seventeenth win of his career, Rea now sits on top of the standings with a five-point lead over Haslam.

Former champion Sykes made a great start from the second row, shadowing his team mate for the opening few turns before he was passed by the Aprilia Racing machine of Haslam, who then set about hunting down Kawasaki-mounted Rea.

As the leading two eased away, the battle for 3rd was intense with Sykes, front row qualifier Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team) and Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) locked in a titanic fight, that saw a number of close overtaking moves around the 4.5km circuit. Davies crashed out of 5th at the end of the 9th lap, the double podium finisher in Australia was able to remount, eventually finishing in 11th.

By half distance the gap between the leading two was constant but as Alex Lowes slid out of podium contention at the final turn on lap 13, the closest on track battle was for third between Sykes and WSBK rookie Torres who was looking strong in fourth and gradually closing in on the former champion.

With the packed grandstand erupting to the cheers of the enthusiastic fans at the end of the final lap, Rea was able to clinch the win. Haslam crossed the line 1.9s ahead of Sykes and Torres, the trio completing the top-four.

Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) rode a lonely race to be classified an eventual 5th ahead of a recovering Alex Lowes who was able to salvage 10 points with a sixth place finish.

Behind the top-six the remaining top ten positions were rounded out by Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing Ducati), Troy Bayliss (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team), David Salom (Team Pedercini Kawasaki) and Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Ducati) who rounded out the top ten respectively after an enthralling race long fight.

Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), Niccolò Canepa (Team Hero EBR) both retired in the early stages along with local wildcard rider Chanon Chumjai (RAC Oil Racing Team). Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike) retired from the top 10 at the start of lap seven as did Anucha Nakcharoensri (YSS TS Racing)

Christophe Ponsson (Grillini Racing Team Kawasaki) was the only other faller, the youngest rider on the WSBK grid crashed uninjured at turn one on lap five.

World Superbike Race One Results

 

1   Jonathan Rea 31m33.852s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team

2   Leon Haslam +6.329s GBR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils

3   Tom Sykes +8.183s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team

4   Jordi Torres +8.513s ESP APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils

5   Sylvain Guintoli +20.502s FRA HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team

6   Matteo Baiocco +26.118s ITA DUCATI Althea Racing

7   Alex Lowes +26.149s GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki

8   David Salom +27.925s ESP KAWASAKI Team Pedercini

9   Troy Bayliss +28.174s AUS DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team

10   Leandro Mercado +32.610s ARG DUCATI BARNI Racing Team

 

World Superbike Race Two:

The second World Superbike race of the day at the Chang International Circuit saw another lights-to-flag victory by Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), who claimed his 18th career win and extended his lead in the championship to 10 points in the process. The third double of his career capped a perfect weekend for the Ulsterman, who was dominant all weekend long as he also claimed pole position and recorded the fastest laps in both encounters. Incredibly enough, he led every single lap of racing, too.

Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), who was keen to make up for the error that cost him a race one podium made a lightning start, shadowing Rea for the first half of the race before succumbing to fellow British rider Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils), who notched up his second consecutive 2nd place of the day.

Race two marked the fourth consecutive encounter with an all-British podium. Never in World Superbike history has the rostrum been made with riders of the same nationality in four successive races.

Other KRT rider Tom Sykes had a fairly uneventful race to claim 5th just behind Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils), who scored another solid result in his debut WSBK season in fourth. The Spaniard pushed hard to overtake the former champion with two laps to go, eventually completing a successful manoeuvre into turn three.

Clutch problems for the reigning World Champion Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) saw the Frenchman having to start from the rear of the grid after missing the sighting lap. He would have an incredible first lap that saw him complete the first lap in 12th. He would eventually finish 6th after getting the better of team-mate Michael van der Mark, who made up for his retirement in race one by finishing 7th.

A group of four riders fought hard for the majority of the 20-lap race for the remaining top ten spots. Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing Ducati) took 8th ahead of David Salom (Team Pedercini Kawasaki) and Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Ducati), with Troy Bayliss (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team) finishing just outside of the top ten in 11th.

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team) suffered his second crash of the day early in the race but fortunately as in race 1 he was able to remount, eventually scoring the final championship point with 15th.

Team Hero EBR riders Niccolo Canepa and Larry Pegram didn’t participate in race two, both suffering engine issues caused by the extreme heat.

In terms of the overall championship standings Rea leads the way with 95 points out of a possible 100, ten ahead of Haslam as the series heads to Aragon in Spain in three weeks’ time.

 

World Superbike Race Two Results

 

1   Jonathan Rea 31m31.173s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team

2   Leon Haslam +4.946s GBR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils

3   Alex Lowes +8.701s GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki

4   Jordi Torres +10.628s ESP APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils

5   Tom Sykes +14.326s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team

6   Sylvain Guintoli +21.060s FRA HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team

7   Michael van der Mark +21.246s NED HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team

8   Matteo Baiocco +23.868s ITA DUCATI Althea Racing

9   David Salom +25.744s ESP KAWASAKI Team Pedercini

10   Leandro Mercado +29.692s ARG DUCATI BARNI Racing Team

11   Troy Bayliss +34.533s AUS DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team

 

World Superbike Championship Standings

 

1   Jonathan Rea 95 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team

2   Leon Haslam 85 pts GBR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils

3   Tom Sykes 50 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team

4   Sylvain Guintoli 41 pts FRA HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team

5   Jordi Torres 39 pts ESP APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils

6   Chaz Davies 38 pts GBR DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team

7   Alex Lowes 32 pts GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki

8   Matteo Baiocco 30 pts ITA DUCATI Althea Racing

9   Nicolas Terol 26 pts ESP DUCATI Althea Racing

10   Leandro Mercado 21 pts ARG DUCATI BARNI Racing Team

11   Michael van der Mark 20 pts NED HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team

 

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