VOL. 54 ISSUE 24 JUNE 20, 2017 P45
riders jumped up when
they stopped sliding to
get their bikes.
Davies had suffered
a broken vertebra,
and was back in the
paddock walking on
Sunday before seeing a
specialist a day later. A
scan at Rimini hospital
confirmed that he had
fractured the wing of
the vertebrae, but suf-
fered no neurological
damage. He is hoping to be in
shape to race Laguna in July.
Rea, shaken to his core, got
back on for third, as Alex Lowes
(Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK
Team) took second.
That means that Sykes took
the most unlikely win of his
WorldSBK career, having started
the last lap in a distant fourth.
Van der Mark was of course
also desperately unlucky in the
opener, but showed that the
Yamaha is improving, and his
team at least got Alex Lowes on
his second podium in as many
WorldSBK weekends.
Jordi Torres (Althea Racing
BMW) was fourth in race one but
looked set for at least a podium
in race two, until he had his
own issue with a tire deflating.
His was not as dramatic as van
der Mark's, but it caused him to
slide and eventually pull out all
together.
Melandri was on a mission up
front by the time Torres went out,
but it promoted Rea to second
place and Sykes back to third,
which he had held for
some time until Rea went
by.
Rea has his own
unbalanced rear wheel
vibration issue in race
two, and with van der
Mark also having another
problem with this kind of
feeling, the Dutchman
was glad to see the flag in
fourth place.
Only 12 riders finished
race two, 15 in race one,
as the heat and the pres-
sure of racing told on
many a bike and rider.
The bizarre recent run
of tire problems which
have hit the series have
Chaz Davies and Jonathan
Rea were not in the right
place at the right time.
Marco Melandri came away with a victory.
