Tom Sykes wins first race in dominant fashion
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) has scored victory in the first World Superbike race of the day, leading the way from lights to the Red Flag that was waved during Lap 19, following the crash suffered by Mark Aitchison (Team Pedercini Kawasaki). The Brit was able to pull away from the rest of the field, except for Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team), in the early stages of the race, with the duo able to lap consistently in the 1'38s barrier. Sykes' pace, though, was too fast even for the Frenchman, as the KRT rider managed to put a safe margin between himself and the rival as the race progressed.
Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) crossed the line a lonely third to complete the top-3 ahead of Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Aprilia), very competitive in the opening laps before losing ground from the top, Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet) and Michele Pirro (Team Ducati Alstare), who rode an incredible maiden race in the series to end up 6th.
In the first half of the race Pirro was involved in a spectacular 5-way battle for sixth place, along with Pata Honda duo of Michel Fabrizio and Leon Haslam, Toni Elias (Red Devils Aprilia) and Vincent Philippe (FIXI Crescent Suzuki). Elias, who made his WSBK debut last month in Turkey, lost control of his Aprilia RSV4 at Turn 13 during the sixteenth lap, taking out Philippe in the process. The difficult first race for the FIXI Crescent Suzuki was completed by local rider's Jules Cluzel crash in the early stages, preceded by the fall occurred to works BMW rider Chaz Davies.
The Championship situation after Race 1 sees Tom Sykes extending his advantage to 29 points over Sylvain Guintoli and 32 on Eugene Laverty.
