WORLD SUPERBIKE
WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 4/MAY 11, 2014
ENZO/DINO FERRARI CIRCUIT/IMOLA, ITALY
P46
Voltcom Crescent Suzu-
ki – a bike that was hard
work at Imola.
In race two Melandri was
11th, and a whopping 37 sec-
onds from Rea up front. He
spoke to almost no one, mysti-
fied as to why his bike works
one minute and then punishes
him the next.
No wins so far and no po-
dium since Aragon, the alarm
bells are ringing for Melandri
even though he is sixth overall
in points.
If his teammate Guintoli was
also floundering that would be
much more understandable
but Guintoli is now third in the
championship, despite a near
no score in Assen.
Toni Elias made a good
show of race two, adding to
Melandri's worries, as he fin-
ished seventh on his Red Dev-
ils Roma Aprilia lease bike.
The top Evo rider in each race
at Imola was BMW Motorrad Ita-
lia's Leon Camier. Although a
phantom menace in Alstare Bi-
mota's Ayrton Badovini held Ca-
mier off in race two, but as usual
no points were scored by the
BB3 riders, as the bike has no
homologation yet. David Salom
leads that championship fight by
six points on his Kawasaki Evo.
Ahead of Camier each time,
Pata Honda's Leon Haslam found
it frustrating and strange that he
cannot get to the pace of Rea
now that the number 65 Honda
is working well on the other side
of the garage. He was 10 sec-
onds behind Voltcom Crescent
Suzuki's Alex Lowes, whom he
used to mentor until recently, in
race one. Tenth and eighth were
points scores that keep Haslam
ninth overall.
In the post-Imola points it is
Rea with 139 to Sykes' 135. Guin-
toli is third with 123 and Baz lies
fourth on 119. Then there's a bit
of a gap to Davies, the Scotsman
52 points behind Rea. CN
Race One
1. Jonathan Rea (Honda)
2. Chaz Davies (Ducati)
3. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
4. Loris Baz (Kawasaki)
5. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia)
6. Marco Melandri (Aprilia)
7. Eugene Laverty (Suzuki)
8. Alex Lowes (Suzuki)
9. Toni Elias (Aprilia)
10. Leon Haslam (Honda)
Race Two
1. Jonathan Rea (Honda)
2. Chaz Davies (Ducati)
3. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia)
4. Loris Baz (Kawasaki)
5. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
6. Davide Giugliano (Ducati)
7. Toni Elias (Aprilia)
8. Leon Haslam (Honda)
9. Eugene Laverty (Suzuki)
10. Alex Lowes (Suzuki)
The man of the
weekend and
the new World
Championship
points leader
Jonathan Rea.
