Tom Sykes finally won a race this season, and Kawasaki Racing Team makes it a double with Jonathan Rea getting second in Race 2
Kawasaki Racing Team and former World Superbike champion Tom Sykes secured his best performance so far this season, and won the Superbike Race 2 at Assen, leading the 21 lap race from flag to flag.
Sykes, who complained already about this seasons’ new technical regulations and seems to be the rider that suffers the most because of them, at least from the batch of riders that usually fight for the podium, made sure he was far away from everyone else right from the start of Race 2.
The Kawasaki rider pushed his Ninja ZX-10RR to the limits, and lap after lap, Sykes won precious tenths of a second to get a margin of more than 4 seconds over his pursuers, a group led by Jonathan Rea with Michael van der Mark (PATA Yamaha) and also Xavi Forés (Barni Ducati) closely behind this duo.
Without making a single mistake and registering the fastest lap of the race, Tom Sykes finally won a race this season, and with it, the British rider broke the unbeaten record at Assen from Jonathan Rea on the last 8 races on this track.
World SBK Assen Race 2 podium: Tom Sykes, Jonathan Rea and Michael van der Mark
Jonathan Rea on the other hand, had to fend off his second position from the always fast home star rider Michael van der Mark, but unlike what we saw in Race 1, the Dutch Yamaha rider didn’t show the pace to beat Rea, so he had to contend with the third position.
With these results, and with Ducati without any rider on the Top 3, Jonathan Rea extends his Championship lead over Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Ducati) to 30 points, 159 against 129, while Marco Melandri on the second factory Ducati maintains third overall with115 points but is now followed by Michael van der Mark with 103, Tom Sykes is fifth with 101 and Xavi Forés sixth with a total of 100 points.
In World Supersport it was Frenchman Jules Cluzel (NRT Yamaha) who came away from Assen with his first win of the season. Cluzel, who hadn’t won a race in more than one year and a half, finally crossed the finish line on a World SSP race in first, after battling hard against his direct rivals.
Frenchman Jules Cluzel ends the Assen race in great style and wins his first Supersport race after a year and a half from his last victory
Jules Cluzel even had to fend off a late attack from Randy Krummenacher (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team), who started the Supersport race from the pit lane, but made an incredible recovery during the race, and finished in second position.
Behind him, Raffaele De Rosa put his MV Agusta onto the podium for the first time this season, after clashing with Cluzel all race. It’s the first non-Yamaha bike in the top three this year. He made it in just ahead of championship leader Lucas Mahias, who sees his lead reduced to just one point.
World SSP Assen Podium: Jules Cluzel, Randy Krummenacher and Raffaele de Rosa
The World Supersport championship standings continue to have Lucas Mahias in the lead with 71 points, Randy Krummenacher is second with 70, while Sandro Cortese is third with a total of 65 points.
The next round of the 2018 World Superbike championship is three weeks from now, with the Italian round at legendary racetrack Imola.