Sykes pulls away and gets Race 1 win
Tom Sykes dominated race 1 to get the 6th race win of his career - the 1st of 2013 - at Assen's TT Circuit today. The Kawasaki Racing Team rider rode a lonely race at the front thanks to an incredible pace, that allowed him to pull away from the chasing pack already in the opening laps.
The 27 year old from Huddersfield has given Kawasaki the first victory after 7 long years: last time out was Chris Walker, in 2006, to win Race 1 on the iconic Dutch circuit.
Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) finished with a solid 2nd place after a successful overtaking manoeuvre on Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) at Turn 13. Second works Aprilia rider Eugene Laverty was part of the 3-way battle for 2nd place but had some hard time in the last part of the race.
Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) was 5th at the chequered flag ahead of Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Aprilia), who was very competitive in the early laps but couldn't keep the pace of the leaders as the race progressed.
It's been an unlucky race for BMW, with Chaz Davies who had to line up on the last row of the grid after the warm-up crash that forced his crew to a quick rebuild of his BMW S 1000 RR. The Welshman made his way up to a 7th place finish after a good start. An unfortunate Marco Melandri suffered a technical problem on his bike during the warm-up lap and was forced to pull in before the start of the race.
