In his first weekend riding for the PATA Racing Team, Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli (Duc) took a win in the second crash-filled World Superbike race at Silverstone, a race that delayed, shortened by a lap, then stopped mid-distance by increasingly atrocious conditions with half points awarded.
Guintoli, who’d previously ridden for the Effenbert Liberty Ducati team, took the lead from the start in the horrible conditions, with Liberty Racing Team Effenbert Ducati’s Jakub Smrz second from the outset and Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty an early third.
By the third lap first race winner Loris Baz (Kaw) was up to third, at a distance, but closing quickly.
Baz took second from Smrz on the eighth lap and went by Guintoli on lap ten in Copse Corner, only to crash a few corners later.
Soon after Baz went down so did a number of others, including third placed Smrz, fourth placed Maxime Berger (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing Ducati), Althea Racing Ducati’s Carlos Checa, Honda World Superbike’s Jonathan Rea and Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes.
With bikes and bodies everywhere, race officials threw the red flag on the tenth of 18 laps, with scoring reverting to the end of the lap eight, the final one completed by the entire field. That gave the win to Guintoli-his second of the year-over Baz, who had his best weekend since replacing the injured Joan Lascorz on the factory Kawasaki ZX-10R. Smrz was a close third.
Laverty was the top rider from the British Isles, finishing 19 secs. behind the winner in fourth when scoring went back to lap eight. He was in third when the race was stopped. Berger was next ahead of Checa and Chaz Davies on the ParkinGO MTC Racing Aprilia, who was fourth at the red flag stoppage.
BMW’s Marco Melandri was just in front of Rea for eighth, then came FIXI Crescent Suzuki’s John Hopkins in tenth, his best of a disappointing season.
Aprilia’s Max Biaggi lost more of his championship cushion by finishing 11th, his worst race finish of the year. He also has a pair of DNFs, including today in race one.
With four rounds – eight races – remaining, Biaggi leads Melandri 274 to 263.5. Sykes, who finished 12th in race two, is third at 222.5.
World Superbike Race Two Results:
1. Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati)
2. Loris Baz (Kawasaki)
3. Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
4. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia)
5. Maxime Berger (Ducati)
6. Carlos Checa (Ducati)
7. Chaz Davies (Aprilia)
8. Marco Melandri (BMW)
9. Jonathan Rea (Honda)
10. John Hopkins (Suzuki)
