Eugene Laverty wins Race 2 at Phillip Island

A formidable last part of the race allowed Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) to get the better of team mate Sylvain Guintoli and Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team) to win race 2 at Phillip Island. Thanks to this successful effort in the first Round, Laverty is now the eni FIM Superbike World Championship leader, tied up in points with Race 1 winner Guintoli.

The 26 year old from Toomebridge, Northern Ireland, started his final charge on the lead on lap 20 by overtaking Melandri at Turn 4 and setting an incredible 1'31.168 (new lap record). Laverty then got past Guintoli on the straight and held onto 1st place up to the chequered flag.

Melandri was part of the battle for top-3 positions but couldn't counter attack his former team mate's move on lap 20. After bad luck in Race 1, the Ravenna-born rider ended up the first round on a positive note. Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma Aprilia), after a long catch up with the front runners, made a small mistake and ran wide during the last lap, in a desperate attempt to overtake fellow Italian Melandri for 3rd position.

Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team), far from the ideal fitness condition, finished 5th ahead of Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Aprilia), Jules Cluzel (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) and Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike).

Following riders Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) and Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) lost a lot of ground on lap 1 after running out wide at MG Corner, following a collision between Welshman Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team) and Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team). Davies was able to get the bike upright and to make it to the pits for a tyre change, but was later penalised with a ride-through by Race Direction for not observing the 2013 pit-stop regulation.

Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) did not take part to Race 2 to undergo some medical checks at Melbourne, following the nasty-looking crash of the previous race.