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WORLD SUPERBIKE WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 7/JUNE 22, 2014 MISANO WORLD CIRCUIT MARCO SIMONCELLI/RIVIERA DI RIMINI, ITALY P90 wait for the next race at Portimao as I am sure that first win of the season will come pretty soon." Behind at the green doors that got slammed in his face on home tarmac, Melandri was otherwise in very good form and could have potentially had more success if not for some early lap interfer- ence. "In race one after a few mis- takes at the start I was able to overtake the riders in front of me, but the Kawasakis were quite simply faster," said Melandri. "I'm disappointed about race two because I was able to make up some ground thanks to the work done in the garage. Unfortunate- ly it is very difficult to overtake here. [Loris] Baz rode very well and didn't make any mistakes." The Aprilias were behind at Mi- sano, but only just behind. It was significant again that the only two real forces on track were the ones with the most direct factory machines, with the most data to call on, even if there was no race at Misano last year. Kawasaki from Aprilia, or vice-versa, it's been a bit like that recently, with others popping up if they have a very good day. Sylvain Guintoli was fourth in race two, after a bad tire choice in race one left him fifth and 16 seconds behind. But Guintoli has the knack of scoring even when he is not riding well, and two more off-podium races did not wreck his championship am- bitions too much – the push of Sykes aside. Ducati's Chaz Davies had a good morning in fourth place un- der the Misano sun and in front of a weekend crowd of 59,424 fans, but in the afternoon his luck turned and he fell at turn four. Davies bike felt strange to him for some unspecified reason. He kept going out of the points, but stopped to save valuable engine life in these days of eight engines per rider per year. Davies teammate Davide Giug- liano was in trouble in race one with vibration from his machine, but in jump starting race two by a millimeter or two he spoiled what could have been a top result. He led Sykes by almost a second on lap one of race two, but after the ride-through penalty the Italian ended the day in ninth. In the early part of the races Toni Elias and his Red Devils Roma Aprilia satellite bike were bang on form, but he faded to sixth in each race. Once again Honda and Suzuki riders toiled in the sun. With elec- tronics and with injures for Volt- com Crescent Suzuki Eugene La- verty, who believes he re-broke a bone in his recently injured right foot just by riding. Pata Honda's Jonathan Rea had clearly had enough of his bike's recent limits and sees no real progress com- ing until his team discovers why a bike that has won three races in 2014 could only take him seventh and fifth at Misano – 21 and 18 seconds off Sykes' pace. In the Evo Championship the Kawaski Racing Team had anoth- er dominant rider, David Salom, who took his stock-engined KRT bike to both wins, with overall 11th and then 10th places. Salom leads the EVO Championship by a serious 24 points, from Ducati Althea Evo's Niccolo Canepa, who finished only one race in the points in Misano. In the main Superbike Cham- pionship chase Sykes now has a useful 39-point lead over Guin- toli, with Baz now only 41 points behind and Rea 52 points adrift. Melandri, who was so convinc- ing a double winner in Malaysia, stays fifth overall, 72 points be- hind Sykes. CN RACE ONE 1. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 2. Loris Baz (Kawasaki) 3. Marco Melandri (Aprilia) 4. Chaz Davies (Ducati) 5. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia) 6. Toni Elias (Aprilia) 7. Jonathan Rea (Honda) 8. Davide Giugliano (Ducati) 9. Eugene Laverty (Suzuki) 10. Leon Haslam (Honda) RACE TWO 1. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 2. Loris Baz (Kawasaki) 3. Marco Melandri (Aprilia) 4. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia) 5. Jonathan Rea (Honda) 6. Toni Elias (Aprilia) 7. Eugene Laverty (Suzuki) 8. Alex Lowes (Suzuki) 9. Davide Giugliano (Ducati) 10. David Salom (Kawasaki)

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