VOL. 55 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 18, 2018 P71
VDM and not Davies who shot
past him and then eased away.
"I changed to the big front tire,
and I think it was better," van der
Mark said. "We changed a little
bit on the suspension but not a
lot. We were quite fast yesterday
and I felt more comfortable on
the bike. I was behind Marco
and Chaz and I was not quicker.
They were overtaking so much,
I was sure one would run wide,
in turn one. To overtake both at
once was a nice present."
With Melandri third in the sec-
ond race, Davies was a slowing
fourth, and doing well to hold off
the determined and much better
Sunday setup Kawasaki of Sykes
right at the end.
The top five in race two were
covered by just 4.834 seconds,
dori, Smrz, Camier, Laverty and
Fores) could have benefitted
from.
Rea made his usual lighting
start from row three in race two
and got forward easily, only for
front-row starter Sykes to block
his path for a while.
With Sykes eventually passed,
another impressive ride from
Davies saw him lead for over
half race distance, fighting back
against the green bike at every
point. Melandri came closer and
then the blue Yamaha of van der
Mark started showing up.
With Rea eventually clear,
VDM slotted past both Ducatis
in one move into the resurfaced
turn one, as the Ducati boys ran
each other wide.
To Melandri's surprise, it was
(Above) It was another hard weekend for PJ Jacobsen.
(Below left) Injured Chaz Davies put up a hard charge early
in race two but couldn't uphold the pace.
BMW was a season highpoint,
even if he is not classed as an
independent rider.
Jordi Torres, soon to ride a
MotoGP bike in place of the
injured Tito Rabat, took his
WorldSBK Reparto Corse MV
Agusta F4 to seventh place,
making it five different machines
inside the top seven places.
Only 14 riders finished race
one, meaning that there was
a point that any one of six
non-finishers (Jacobsen, Sava-
