Imola WSBK: Davies scores lights-to-flag win as Rea slips up
Ducati's Chaz Davies took a confident win in the opening race of the World Superbike weekend at Imola, leading every lap of the race.
The Welshman secured his victory after Jonathan Rea, his only close challenger, made a mistake and lost several seconds.
The start of the race was delayed by 10 minutes following after a sighting lap incident, which saw Dominic Schmitter falling from his bike and sliding into Peter Sebestyen.
Once proceedings finally got under way, Davies quickly edged away from the rest of the field, building a lead of a second in just three laps over Rea and Tom Sykes, the Kawasaki duo passing Giugliano off the line.
While Rea managed to maintain the gap, the reigning champion ran wide at Tosa on Lap 9, narrowly missing the gravel and as such only losing around three seconds.
Rea rejoined just ahead of Sykes, the latter unable to take advantage of his teammate's mistake.
With the fight for the lead now effectively over, Davies cruised to the finish to take his third win of the season.
The podium was completed by Rea and Sykes, the championship leader holding off a late charge from his teammate.
Jordi Torres secured his and BMW's top finish of the year in fourth after passing Giugliano and the Ioda Aprilia of Lorenzo Savadori.
The Italian pair were running fourth and fifth in the beginning of the race but soon started losing ground.
Although he was demoted by Leon Camier as well, the MV Agusta rider made a mistake, allowing Giugliano to finish fifth.
Savadori lost further two places to Honda duo Michael van der Mark and Nicky Hayden but repassed the American to end up eighth.
Xavi Fores (Barni Ducati) and Yamaha's sole factory rider Alex Lowes finished 10th and 11th respectively.
Full results
Pos. | Rider | Bike | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Chaz Davies | Ducati Panigale R | |
2 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 3.406s |
3 | Tom Sykes | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 3.729s |
4 | Jordi Torres | BMW S1000 RR | 13.631s |
5 | Davide Giugliano | Ducati Panigale R | 19.948s |
6 | Leon Camier | MV Agusta 1000 F4 | 25.586s |
7 | Michael van der Mark | Honda CBR1000RR SP | 27.262s |
8 | Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia RSV4 RF | 28.300s |
9 | Nicky Hayden | Honda CBR1000RR SP | 29.263s |
10 | Xavi Fores | Ducati Panigale R | 29.426s |
11 | Alex Lowes | Yamaha YZF R1 | 29.622s |
12 | Matteo Baiocco | Ducati Panigale R | 30.005s |
13 | Markus Reiterberger | BMW S1000 RR | 34.667s |
14 | Joshua Brookes | BMW S1000 RR | 57.050s |
15 | Alex de Angelis | Aprilia RSV4 RF | 1m03.267s |
16 | Karel Abraham | BMW S1000 RR | 1m14.668s |
17 | Josh Hook | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 1m40.796s |
18 | Pawel Szkopek | Yamaha YZF R1 | +2 LAPS |
Ret | Saeed Al Sulaiti | Kawasaki ZX-10R | +11 LAPS |
DNS | Peter Sebestyen | Yamaha YZF R1 | +18 LAPS |
DNS | Dominic Schmitter | Kawasaki ZX-10R | +18 LAPS |
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