VOL. 53 ISSUE 13 APRIL 5, 2016 P21
turer, especially in top power.
"It was better, wasn't it? The
characteristic of this track, the
roll onto that back straight is
different and it is a lot about grip.
It is also downhill. You are not
stopping the bike and firing it,
you are kind of rolling it through
there and it is how you get on
the gas, how you control the
wheelie onto that straight that
makes a difference. I feel we are
good in those areas and the ex-
tra few horsepower we have got
has made a difference, obvious-
ly, to not just sit in the slipstream
of the Kawasaki but I was able to
pull out and pass Tom."
Rea looked set for his second
runner-up place of the weekend
until his bike locked its rear.
He ran on in turn one and the
following Sykes, once more the
early leader, pounced and never
looked back. His second place
was nearly three seconds ahead
of his formerly dominant team-
mate.
Rea was unhappy to be so far
from Davies more so than being
behind Sykes in race two.
"This weekend it does not
mean so much because I want
to win," said Rea. "In Thailand
it was hard because I feel like I
lost the race there but here in
Aragon—teammates aside—we
were so far from first position. To
be top teammate of the year did
not mean much. It hurt more to
be nine seconds off the race win
than to be beaten by Tom."
Sykes was happy that things
were swinging his way in the
technical battle inside the
Kawasaki camp, as Rea is not
yet settled into his ideal 2016
machine setup on the low inertia
engine. He was deeply dis-
turbed about the pace of Davies,
and his Ducati.
Behind the top three, Barni
Racing Ducati's Xavi Fores
cleaved a double fissure in all
the pre-race assumptions by
taking two fourth places. He
beat the factory bike of Davide
Giugliano each time.
The best BMW rider on an-
other very up and down week-
end all round for the German
machines was from Spain's Jordi
Torres (Althea BMW Racing
Team). Michael van der Mark
(Honda World Superbike Team)
the star of previous 2016 shows
It was another trying time for Nicky Hayden on the aging CBR.
