VOL. 55 ISSUE 19 MAY 15, 2018 P33
more like-for-like performance
out of their chassis and bike
dynamics than they have lost
to their rivals in peak revs.
For Rea, race one at Imola
was almost a training exercise
from trackside, leading every
lap and easing up, with his
teammate Sykes unable to
hold onto his amazing pace in
warm and humid conditions.
For race two, off the third
row, Chaz Davies (Aruba.it
Ducati) had started race two
off pole under the reverse
grid rules, but was simply
swamped by Rea when it was
decided he had done enough
time in Davies' slipstream. Rea
pulled the pin to lead on lap
12 of 19, and won by over four
seconds.
"I don't know how much I had
behind Chaz, but I know that
when I was behind him I was
physically quite relaxed," Rea
said of race two. "Of course I
was riding fast. The lap times
were still quite fast. Typically,
the way I think about winning a
race is to leave a sort of five-lap
attack, but I wanted to go a bit
earlier and put in a full effort at
the beginning and then control
the race at the end. But even in
the last laps I could see that the
pit board was increasing."
Davies, the great red hope of
the WorldSBK neutrals for some
seasons now—in terms of taking
the championship challenge to
the very end at least—felt out-
gunned in his overall package at
Imola, and one weekend before.
In race one, Sykes was lack-
ing some front-end feel, but still
took second. He lacked a lot of
front-end something in race two,
but after a raft of riders either fell
in front of him, or dropped back,
or got caught by a patient and
experienced Sykes, he finished
up third.
With Rea miles away in points
and Davies one win worth of
points ahead, Sykes still clam-
bered up to third in the overall
rankings today.
Marco Melandri had been
third in race one behind Rea
and Sykes, but in race two even
a fourth place was ruled out as
Michael van der Mark made an
over-ambitions pass inside at the
first Rivazza corner, ending Me-
landri's almost literal hometown
race weekend too early.
With Davies toiling in fourth in
race one after a bad start and
running wide, Xavi Fores (Barni
Racing Ducati) was twice the top
independent rider, fifth in race
one and fourth in race two, de-
spite losing front grip each time.
Van der Mark had a great race
one before his first no score of
2018, going from 12th on the
grid to sixth.
Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Puc-
cetti Racing) ran his father Ron's
old ELF black bodywork from
his 500cc days in his wildcard
ride at Imola before another go
at home in Donington next time
out. It took him to ninth in race
one, but running wide and then
finishing 16th in race two.
Another tough weekend for
Milwaukee Aprilia saw Eugene
Laverty return from injury go
from sixth in lap one of race one
to 12th, and then improve from
13th on lap one of race two to
ninth, but still over 20 seconds
from the win.
It was another tough weekend
Cluzel came out on top after a thrilling four-way fight for victory.
