Cycle News

ROUND 5/MAY 26, 2013 DONINGTON PARK/EAST MIDLANDS, ENGLAND WORLD SUPERBIKE (Above) Championship leader Sylvain Guintoli (50) leads Jonathan Rea (65), Davide Giugliano (34) and the rest of the pack in race two. Guintoli was a consistent third and second in the two races, but gave up points to Sykes on the weekend. (Right) Marco Melandri finished second in race one, but was fifth in race two after running off track on the final lap. es. I got a couple of podiums on a track like this and I have never had a podium here, in Superbike or in any categories. In the second race there was Tom and there was me and I dropped the rest of the guys. I could not go and get Tom; there was no way to follow him. When you have done your best, you have done your best - I could not invent any more grip or whatever." Marco Melandri was a podium finisher in race one with his P88 WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP Lowes Three In a Row At the end of the Monza race, Kawasaki Mahi Racing Team India's Kenan Sofuoglu was already thinking that maybe Sam Lowes and his Yakhnich Yamaha would have too much for him at Lowes' home race. Turns out he was right. But he wasn't happy that Lowes had so much in hand to beat him by 11 seconds, even if the Turkish rider had been fouled up by other riders in a very competitive first few laps. Lowes led all 22 laps and set a new lap record of 1:30.927 as he eased away from the pack. He had set a 1:30.276 to take pole in qualifying. "All weekend we have been fast and I like it here at Donington," Lowes said. "The race was quite lonely as I made a good start, got to the front, and rode away. I am very lucky to have a great team around me and this season we are having a great competition now. Kenan is a great rider and fast rider and he knows that you have to be consistent to try and win championships." Sofuoglu was happy enough when he realized he couldn't have beaten Lowes no matter how cleanly he could have got away and thinks a 30-point advantage in the championship for his English rival is not too much at this stage - with nine races left. "Donington is a difficult track to pass on so for some riders it took three or four laps to get ahead, but in any case I could not stay with Sam Lowes," Sofuoglu said. "I should not be 11 seconds behind, maybe four or five. The final result is okay and not so bad for the championship either. I think Sam was just too fast here and gathering 20 points was good for this weekend." The story of the day, in fact of all World Supersport history, was that an MV Agusta got on the podium for

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