10 facts to fire you up for Sunday’s Race 2 at Donington
Saturday was a historic day of racing, but it could get even better on Sunday!
1. Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) became the first Dutch race winner in WorldSBK history on Saturday with his Donington Race 1 win. His previous best was second, which he has managed on five occasions.
2. Since the late Nicky Hayden won at Sepang 2016, only four riders had climbed to the top of the rostrum: the current Aruba.it and KRT pairs of riders. With van der Mark’s win, a string of 50 consecutive Ducati and Kawasaki wins was broken.
3. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) will race for the 90th time for Kawasaki in Race 2. In his previous 89 races, he has only missed out on a podium finish an astonishing 10 times.
4. Tom Sykes’ (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) third place on Saturday was the Yorkshire rider’s 14th podium at Donington Park, a record at this track, beating another Troy Corser record (13).
5. Despite this record-breaking podium, third was Sykes’ worst result at Donington Park since 2012, when he was also third in both races. He followed that with nine consecutive wins and one second before Saturday’s race.
6. Donington is Sykes’ best performing track on Sundays, with four consecutive Race 2 wins here between 2013 and 2016. From this year, it’s also his best Superpole track with six fastest qualifying laps in Leicestershire, tying the circuit with Misano on Sykes’ list.
7. After Race 1, Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) fell to fifth in the championship standings for the first time this season. Last time he was this low in WorldSBK, after Misano Race 1, 2017 (where he also crashed), he won Race 2.
8. By qualifying in third at the Superpole 1 in Donington, Loris Baz (BMW GULF Althea Racing Team) recorded only his fifth front row start in WorldSBK, and his first since 2014.
9. Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia) continued his growing momentum with his best result of 2018, a fifth position in race 1. On Sunday, he will start from second, his first front row start this season.
10. Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK) will start from pole position on Sunday, after his fourth place in Race 1. This will be Lowes’ second pole start of the season, after he took the Tissot Superpole at Assen. For a Race 2, we must go back to Jerez last year to see Lowes leading the line.
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