ONCE again Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes proves why he’s the reigning World Superbike Champion after winning at Portimao with Sylvain Guintoli in second.
It was Jonathan Rea who led from the start and the following two laps before Sykes and Aprilia Racing’s Marco Melandri made an overtaking manoeuvre into turn one on lap four.
Followed was a chop-and-change race allowing Sykes to gain a lead of three seconds as white flags were waved indicating spots of rain on particular parts of the circuit in Portugal.
Bad luck for Ducati’s Chaz Davies as Leon Haslam lost the front end of his Pata Honda and wiped out the fellow Brit. Despite both riders remounting, Davies was forced to retire due to mechanical issues allowing Haslam to finish 11th.
Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli quietly made his way through the pack up into second and rapidly reduced Sykes’ lead on the closing laps, but Sykes crossed the line with a two seconds to spare.
With Sykes claiming the top step of the podium, Guintoli finished second whilst Kawasaki team-mate Loris Baz finished in third after a battle with Melandri.
After leading the first three laps of race one Rea finished a lonely fifth ahead of fellow Brit Alex Lowes whilst his team-mate Eugene Laverty finished eighth.
On his return to World Superbike’s after recovering from various injuries Sylvain Barrier, who races for the EVO BMW Motorrad Italia Team, made sure top EVO rider David Salom was kept in his sights finishing only 0.014s behind him.
Race one results:
1. Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki Racing
2. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Aprilia Racing Team4 +2.539
3. Loris Baz FRA Kawasaki Racing +3.175
4. Marco Melandri ITA Aprilia Racing Team +4.042
5. Jonathan Rea GBR Pata Honda World Superbike +7.791
6. Alex Lowes GBR Voltcom Crescent Suzuki +14.772
7. Davide Giugliano ITA Ducati Superbike Team +14.877
8. Eugene Laverty IRL Voltcom Crescent Suzuki +14.941
9. David Salom* ESP Kawasaki Racing +26.018
10. Sylvain Barrier* FRA BMW Italia +26.032
11. Leon Haslam GBR Pata Honda World Superbike +33.041
12. Jeremy Guarnoni* FRA MRS Kawasaki +38.385
13. Niccolo Canepa* ITA Althea Ducati +42.237
14. Riccardo Russo* ITA Pedercini Kawasaki +47.908
15. Alessandro Andreozzi* ITA Pedercini Kawasaki +1:03.502
16. Aaron Yates USA Team Hero EBR +1 lap
17. Gabor Rizmayer HUN Team Toth BMW +1 lap
DNF. Chaz Davies GBR Ducati Superbike Team
DNF. Peter Sebestyen* HUN Team Toth BMW
DNF. Bryan Staring* AUS IRON BRAIN Kawasaki
DNF. Sheridan Morais* RSA IRON BRAIN Kawasaki
DNF. Toni Elias ESP Red Devils Roma Aprilia R
DNF. Fabien Foret* FRA MAHI Kawasaki
DNF. Geoff May USA Team Hero EBR
Ayrton Badovini* ITA Bimota Alstare**
Christian Iddon* GBR Bimota Alstare**
*= EVO class
**= Subject to homologation
