Lausitz WSBK: Davies defeats Kawasaki duo in Race 1
Ducati works rider Chaz Davies banked his fifth World Superbike victory of 2017, seeing off the Kawasaki factory pair in the Saturday race at the Lausitzring.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Davies had qualified a season-low sixth, 0.64s off pole as Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea secured a 1-2 on the grid for Kawasaki.
But Rea ran wide after going down the inside of Sykes at Turn 1 after the start and, as he slotted back onto the racing line, Davies was already ahead courtesy of a lighting start.
On the second lap, Davies picked off Sykes for the lead of the race, with Rea following through at the first corner next time around.
While Sykes couldn't keep pace with the leading pair for long, Rea managed to remain in touch with the race lead for most of the race, staying within half a second of Davies.
But the Welshman finally broke away from Rea in the final stretch of the 21-lap race, finishing 1.8s ahead of the reigning champion.
Sykes brought it home in third, with Davies' teammate Marco Melandri only just hanging on to fourth over MV Agusta's Leon Camier and Yamaha's Alex Lowes.
Lorenzo Savadori, who will test Aprilia's MotoGP machinery next week, lost ground after starting on the front row and ended up seventh at the flag.
Barni Ducati's Xavi Fores was eighth, ahead of BMW's Jordi Torres, who recovered after dropping back in the opening laps, and Aprilia's Eugene Laverty.
Honda wildcard Davide Giugliano, making his return to World Superbikes since his exit from the Ducati works team at the end of last year, retired with a mechanical issue while running in the points.
The outfit's regular rider Stefan Bradl sat out the race due to lingering arm pain from a Friday crash.
With nine races left to run, Rea has extended his advantage over teammate Sykes to 63 points, with Davies 110 off the championship leader.
Race results
Cla | # | Rider | Bike | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 | Chaz Davies | Ducati | - |
2 | 1 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | 1.834 |
3 | 66 | Tom Sykes | Kawasaki | 3.250 |
4 | 33 | Marco Melandri | Ducati | 16.005 |
5 | 2 | Leon Camier | MV Agusta | 16.597 |
6 | 22 | Alex Lowes | Yamaha | 16.783 |
7 | 32 | Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia | 24.898 |
8 | 12 | Xavi Fores | Ducati | 31.137 |
9 | 81 | Jordi Torres | BMW | 31.373 |
10 | 50 | Eugene Laverty | Aprilia | 40.593 |
11 | 36 | Leandro Mercado | Aprilia | 47.796 |
12 | 88 | Randy Krummenacher | Kawasaki | 48.509 |
13 | 21 | Markus Reiterberger | BMW | 50.795 |
14 | 40 | Roman Ramos | Kawasaki | 1 lap |
15 | 60 | Michael van der Mark | Yamaha | 1 lap |
16 | 86 | Ayrton Badovini | Kawasaki | 1 lap |
Ret | 35 | Raffaele De Rosa | BMW | |
Ret | 19 | Pawel Szkopek | Yamaha | |
Ret | 84 | Riccardo Russo | Yamaha | |
Ret | 37 | Ondrej Jezek | Kawasaki | |
Ret | 34 | Davide Giugliano | Honda | |
Ret | 55 | Massimo Roccoli | Yamaha |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments