Round 10: Jerez
Melandri does the double, Guintoli narrows the gap to the championship lead.
The third ever visit to Jerez de la Frontera in the history of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship delivered a great show for both the series fans watching at home and the Spanish crowd attending the event. With a 44 point lead on Sylvain Guintoli and 64 on Jonathan Rea, Tom Sykes was ready to resume the action and so were his rivals.
But it was the other factory ZX-10R machine of Loris Baz to record the quickest time in Saturday’s Tissot-Superpole, as the Frenchman claimed pole position over Davide Giugliano and his teammate Sykes by a quarter of a second. Come Sunday a different story emerged as the Aprilia riders were dominant in both Race 1 and Race 2, with Marco Melandri edging out twice Sylvain Guintoli for the win.
At the end of one of the most spectacular World Supersport races ever, Michael van der Mark came out on top to claim the title with two races to go, while Marco Faccani won his fifth race out of six to secure the STK600 crown. In the STK1000 encounter Leandro Mercado was back on the top step of the podium for the first time since the season opener at Aragon.
Remember to click on the links in this article to watch highlights and interviews of this round.
