Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 29 JULY 23, 2013 Ayrton Badovini (86) got the better of Jonathan Rea (65) to give the Ducati Panigale its first World Superbike podium finish. That left Baz and his Kawasaki in the lead on slicks, but his gamble that the rain would clear backfired and he slowed to be passed by the rocketing Melandri and then the not much slower Davies. He pitted, put on wets and finished eighth. The wet changed everything, almost, and as Guintoli came in and out at the right time, on the right tires, he took it home for sixth and 10 super-valuable championship points. Up front Melandri would win, in what were finally horribly wet conditions of driving rain, with Davies second by seven seconds. "I think it could have been good for a win in race one until the rain started, but I am happy to get a podium finish," Davies said. "I made a great start and had a good first few laps in the dry. I was hoping it would not rain any more, but one part was wet and one part was dry so it was a very difficult mental battle to try and split the two, because it was really like two different circuits, so it was easy to make a mistake and crash. I tried to be as careful as possible and as fast as possible." The final podium placing delivered the kind of result that the Ducati Alstare Superbike team had been looking for all year - a podium. It came not for Checa, who was out, but for Ayrton Badovini, who took third after finding the best pace of all in wet conditions. He did not know he was already in third after he had passed Rea with ease and he pushed himself all the way to try and find Davies, even if he was five seconds away. "It was the first podium for me in this team, the first podium for the Panigale in this championship and the first podium for Ducati Alstare," said Badovini. "I enjoyed myself so much in the first race. We knew we had a good pace if it was going to be wet and everything went as we had hoped. My boys have worked very well, my pit stop was very fast and, returning to the track, I was able to push hard. On the last lap I thought I was in fourth place, not in third, and that's what I was pushing so strongly. I wanted to do everything to reach the podium!" Rea found it difficult to let Badovini go, but he had already al- P99 Briefly... Sylvain Guintoli confirmed that he was in better shape than he expected to be once he got on track in Russia after his recent right collarbone dislocation. "With the Clinica Mobile we also have a better understand of what I need to ride. It is still not the most pleasant ride I have had, but I am really happy with eighth position because last Monday the decision was to have the surgery because I was sure I could not ride here or do anything. Now with the race tire I almost have a good pace. It is very painful, but it will only be for 30 minutes or so. What is 30 minutes in a lifetime? So I just have to go for it. And Tom [Sykes] is right next to me on the startline. On Monday if you had told me I would be in front of him in Superpole, I would not even have laughed." The re-signing of Tom Sykes for the Kawasaki team for 2014 allowed an official start to the silly season, which until that time had Marco Melandri linked to rides with Kawasaki and Aprilia for 2014. It seems unlikely that Kawasaki would want to spent for two big name championship contenders so Melandri is probably not in with a chance there anymore. Add in that Kawasaki appears very happy with both the progress and the proven podium ability of 20-year-old Loris Baz and Melandri may be looking at any possible Aprilia ride or staying with BMW. Persistent niggling rumors that the World Superbike round in Turkey is under threat were denied at Moscow and even according to the teams the race is still firmly on. The continued on next page

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