Tom Sykes wins Race 1 ahead of Melandri and Guintoli
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) is the winner of Race 1 at Donington Park. The Brit rode a perfect race up front for all the 23 laps, displaying pure class and outstanding race craft. Thanks to his 2nd win of the season, the 7th of his career, Sykes edges out Laverty for 2nd place in the standings and he's now just 9 points behind Championship leader Sylvain Guintoli, 3rd at the flag.
Despite a not so easy first part of the race, Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) clawed his way back to 2nd place after a successful overtake manoeuvre at the last turn, on lap 16, over Guintoli.
Following a competitive first part of the race Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike), couldn't keep up the pace with Sykes and was forced to ride defensively to a final fourth position. The Ulsterman finished ahead Frenchman Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) - who had an up and down performance in race 1 - and Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team). The works Aprilia rider had a hard time after running off-track during lap 7 at "Fogarty Esses", and continued to struggle as the race went by.
Same type of performance for Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK), able to stay with team mate Melandri in the early stages but finding difficult to push hard later on in the race. An early withdraw from the race for Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) following a crash at "Goddards" on lap 3. Team mate Jules Cluzel ended up 9th ahead of Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma Aprilia). Ayrton Badovini, Carlos Checa and Niccolò Canepa (Team Ducati Alstare) brought their challenge up to the flag to finish 11th , 12th and 13th respectively.
After doing his best to line-up his CBR 1000 RR on the grid, Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) was forced to withdraw the race due to his fitness conditions.
