Aragon WSBK: Rea wins, Davies crashes from the lead
Defending World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea took his fifth win of 2017 in Race 1 at Aragon, after a race-long duel with Chaz Davies ended with the Welshman crashing out.
Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing
Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Despite having to skip one of the free practice sessions due to a mechanical failure, Davies became the first rider to beat Rea in qualifying this season, having edged him out in Superpole 2 by half a tenth.
Davies gave up the lead temporarily during the opening lap of the race, but it was the Ducati rider starting Lap 2 in first place.
However, he was unable to pull away, as Rea spent several laps right behind him before finally making a move on Lap 7.
Once again, Davies managed to fight back, moving past the Northern Irishman at Turn 1.
Rea continued to put pressure on Davies, forcing the latter to brake late several times in order to defend.
The Kawasaki rider finally outmanoeuvred Davies with three laps to go, and, even though Davies forced his way back into the lead, he ended up crashing on the penultimate lap and retiring.
Rea cruised through the final lap of the race and won by four seconds.
Marco Melandri (Ducati) recorded his best finish of the season in second, as neither he nor Kawasaki's Tom Sykes could keep up with their respective teammates.
Sykes was best of the rest initially before being passed by Melandri.
The Briton was also challenged by Xavi Fores (Barni Ducati), but the latter ended up crashing out.
He rejoined the race after his incident, but his bike caught on fire, forcing him to retire for good.
Sykes was not under pressure by anyone else as he completed the podium, followed by Yamaha duo Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark.
Lowes was unable to take part in Superpole 2 due to a mechanical failure and was forced to start 12th, but completed a strong recovery to beat his teammate by more than two seconds.
Local rider Jordi Torres (Althea BMW) secured sixth ahead of Ioda Aprilia man Leandro Mercado, who took part in his first WSBK race of the season.
Mercado beat fellow Aprilia rider Eugene Laverty, who spent the race fighting with the Honda duo of Stefan Bradl and Nicky Hayden.
WSBK debutant Julian Simon (Aprilia Milwaukee), who replaced the injured Lorenzo Savadori, took 13th.
Race 1 result
Bike | Laps | Gap | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | - | 25 |
2 | Marco Melandri | Ducati | 4.058 | 20 |
3 | Tom Sykes | Kawasaki | 7.512 | 16 |
4 | Alex Lowes | Yamaha | 9.962 | 13 |
5 | Michael van der Mark | Yamaha | 12.302 | 11 |
6 | Jordi Torres | BMW | 18.995 | 10 |
7 | Leandro Mercado | Aprilia | 21.545 | 9 |
8 | Eugene Laverty | Aprilia | 27.309 | 8 |
9 | Stefan Bradl | Honda | 27.488 | 7 |
10 | Nicky Hayden | Honda | 27.663 | 6 |
11 | Leon Camier | MV Agusta | 35.409 | 5 |
12 | Markus Reiterberger | BMW | 41.558 | 4 |
13 | Julian Simon | Aprilia | 44.006 | 3 |
14 | Randy Krummenacher | Kawasaki | 44.482 | 2 |
15 | Alex de Angelis | Kawasaki | 45.915 | 1 |
16 | Riccardo Russo | Yamaha | > 1' | |
Chaz Davies | Ducati | |||
Xavi Forés | Ducati | |||
Roman Ramos | Kawasaki | |||
Ayrton Badovini | Kawasaki |
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