VOL. 55 ISSUE 15 APRIL 17, 2018 P51
to turn his bike and some prob-
lems in his private life he would
not elucidate on, was just off this
week. It carried on to race two,
in warmer and sunnier condi-
tions, as he finished even further
back then, in sixth again but
nearly 14 seconds from the win.
Following a bad launch, as his
bike had a glitch and was ninth
on lap one in race two, it was
time for Davies to shine after run-
ning a too hard rear on the cool
Saturday asphalt. He and Rea
and Fores had started from row
three, as the reverse grid rules
demand, but they all made it to
the race lead, as van der Mark
and Melandri had earlier on.
"I think we made the right
choice after the race yesterday,"
Davies said of a more comfort-
able win than he expected.
"Happy to stay in contention and
not let Johnny get too far ahead."
Behind the lead in both races
the Pata Yamaha riders of van
der Mark and Alex Lowes were
the most effective again, with
Lowes seventh in race one after
a fight with Sykes, and fourth in
race two, as he dueled with van
der Mark. In race one there was
a key figure finally missing from
the classification, and for race
two, as well.
The first race only went 17
laps of 18, because it had been
stopped and restarted after Leon
Camier broke three ribs and
suffered a bruised lung when
he low-sided coming out of a
corner.
For the Americans on board,
Jake Gagne (Red Bull Honda)
took 13-12 results with PJ Jacob-
sen (Triple M Honda) stealing a
12th in race one and 15th in race
two.
"The Fireblade was working re-
ally well and I could hold a good
pace throughout the race, but in
the last few laps I struggled a bit
with rear grip, so at that point I
just focused on keeping my posi-
tion," Gagne said. "Overall I'm
really happy from this weekend
as I got points in both races and
made progress with the bike so
it's a good way to head into As-
Jake Gagne came
home with two
point-scoring rides
in 12th and 13th.
