Buriram WSBK: Rea wins red-flagged Race 2 as Davies falls
Jonathan Rea continued his unbeaten run in the 2017 World Superbike season in the second Buriram race with a fourth straight win, as main rival Chaz Davies made a mistake and only took sixth.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Having finished fourth in Race 1, it was Marco Melandri starting from pole ahead of the Yamaha duo of Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes.
While the Ducati rider had a strong start, he had his teammate Davies and the Kawasaki of Rea, the duo starting eighth and ninth respectively, right behind him by the end of the opening lap.
Davies immediately put pressure on Melandri, but an overly optimistic braking attempt caused him to crash, and the Welshman dropped to last.
Rea claimed the lead two laps later, soon before the race was red-flagged following a high-side crash from Lorenzo Savadori, which appeared to leave oil on track.
While Melandri temporarily took first when the racing resumed, Rea was back ahead by the end of the restart lap.
Melandri and Tom Sykes closely followed him for a handful of laps before the championship leader started to pull away to eventually win by four seconds.
Like on Saturday, Melandri came under pressure from Sykes late in the race and in a repeat of the previous race, the Briton snuck past on the final lap.
Alex Lowes (Yamaha) spent the race alone in fourth, with Althea BMW's Jordi Torres holding off the recovering Davies for fifth.
Davies gained eighth places at the restart and spent most of the race in the lower reaches of the top 10. He took advantage of a crash from Eugene Laverty (Aprilia) and a bike failure from Leon Camier (MV Agusta) to minimise his losses in sixth.
Nicky Hayden finished seventh, the best result of the new Honda Fireblade this season, as his teammate Stefan Bradl crashed out.
The top 10 was completed by Xavi Fores (Barni Ducati), Roman Ramos (Kawasaki Go Eleven) and Markus Reiterberger (Althea BMW).
Front row starter van der Mark was another rider to retire, as he failed to continue the race after the restart due to issues with his Yamaha.
Race 2 results
Cla | Driver | Bike | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | - |
2 | Tom Sykes | Kawasaki | 4.078 |
3 | Marco Melandri | Ducati | 4.195 |
4 | Alex Lowes | Yamaha | 10.005 |
5 | Jordi Torres | BMW | 14.733 |
6 | Chaz Davies | Ducati | 16.972 |
7 | Nicky Hayden | Honda | 20.543 |
8 | Xavi Forés | Ducati | 24.283 |
9 | Roman Ramos | Kawasaki | 24.864 |
10 | Markus Reiterberger | BMW | 26.008 |
11 | Alex de Angelis | Kawasaki | 27.599 |
12 | Riccardo Russo | Yamaha | 34.800 |
13 | Ondrej Jezek | Kawasaki | 47.090 |
14 | Ayrton Badovini | Kawasaki | 47.695 |
15 | Eugene Laverty | Aprilia | 1 lap |
Ret | Leon Camier | MV Agusta | |
Ret | Randy Krummenacher | Kawasaki | |
Ret | Stefan Bradl | Honda | |
Ret | Michael van der Mark | Yamaha |
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