Photography by Gold & Goose
It was an outstanding day in Jerez for Italian racing veteran Marco Melandri and Aprilia. Melandri finished the day with another victory in World Superbike race two, earning the perfect sweep of both races. And again his Aprilia teammate Sylvain Guintoli finished second, giving Aprilia a 1-2 result in both races. It wasn’t bad for Guintoli either. Even though he might have made bigger gains had he been able to hold on and win both races, he at least finished in front of series leader and defending Superbike World Champion Tom Sykes. In race two Sykes was third and that allowed Guintoli to chop 13 points out of Sykes’ lead. It was 44 points coming into this weekend and they leave Jerez 31 points apart.
The drama in race two began almost immediately as best EVO classified rider in race one David Salom (Kawasaki Racing Team) crashed out on lap one with Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team) retiring with a technical problem on lap two.
At the front Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) led from Tom Sykes, the Kawasaki Racing rider and reigning World Champion making a much better start but as in race one it was Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing Team) who slowly worked his way to the front, eventually passing Guintoli in the final third of the race to take the a double win ahead of his teammate and Tom Sykes who were second and third respectively.
Completing the top six were Chaz Davies (Ducati Superbike Team), Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike Team), and Eugene Laverty (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) while the best EVO classified rider was Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia) who finished 11th overall and comfortably ahead of 12th placed Sheridan Morais (Iron Brain Grillini Kawasaki) who scored on of his best results of the year.
There was jubilation for Team Toth BMW who achieved their third point scoring finish of the season courtesy of a 14th place finish by replacement rider Gabor Rizmayer.
For Melandri the day was sweet redemption after crashing out of the lead in the second race at Laguna Seca, the most recent round before Jerez.
“After Laguna race two it was very disappointing,” said Melandri, who scored his second sweep of the season. “So I came here thinking about doing my best. I knew with the feeling of the bike today that I could get a good result. The bike was awesome; the team did an awesome job. Race two was more difficult because it was a little bit warmer, so there was more sliding. I just tried to be consistent. I wasn’t so fast in the beginning, but I could keep my rhythm a little bit better than the others to the end. I was able to overtake Tom and Sylvain in the end, so it was an awesome double weekend for me. I’m happy now and can relax a few days. I can’t wait for Magny Cours.”
Instead of lamenting what might have been, Guintoli instead focused on the positives of finishing ahead of Sykes in both races today in Jerez.
“The job here was to try to get some points off Tom,” Guintoli explained. “Last year it (Jerez) was not a good track for me. Tom beat me twice. To be honest I wasn’t looking forward to it. I knew Marco would be strong as well because he rides well at Jerez all the time, even last year while being injured. Overall we’ve done our job. It’s not perfect, because we could have had 10 more points, but I gave it my all. I think showed that I really wanted this and I pushed really hard and took a lot of risks to go to the front. So I’m happy with that and we’ll take the positives. The next round is in Magny Cours where Tom is strong as well last year. We’ll be looking forward to try to claw a few more points in front of the French public. I hope we’ll get some good support from the French.”
It was a better performance in race two for Sykes, who explained some of his issues in race one.
“I got a good start, but unfortunately hit the gear lever when I was fighting with the bike,” Sykes explained of race one. “That in itself unfolded a chain of events that made the race very difficult. Some changes for race two. I always knew we’d be battling slightly uphill this weekend against the two guys in front of me. Their bike and rider combination are really fast at this circuit. Overall I’m satisfied. I’m not over the moon, but we’ve learned a lot and we’ve not given up too much ground. We can regroup and come back strong. We have some nice circuits remaining, so overall we’re not too displeased and we can move on from here.”
Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Supersport Team) became the 2014 World Supersport Champion in style by winning at Jerez as his closest championship rival Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) crashed out of the lead at the end of the penultimate lap. Completing the podium were the Intermoto Kawasaki Ponyexpres teammates PJ Jacobsen and Florian Marino.
World Superbike Race 2 Results from Jerez, Spain – Sept. 7 2014
1 4 33 M. MELANDRI ITA Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 Factory 20
2 5 50 S. GUINTOLI FRA Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 Factory 20 2.845
3 3 1 T. SYKES GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 20 6.097
4 7 7 C. DAVIES GBR Ducati Superbike Team Ducati 1199 Panigale R 20 7.749
5 10 65 J. REA GBR PATA Honda World Superbike Honda CBR1000RR 20 7.935
6 6 58 E. LAVERTY IRL Voltcom Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 20 10.510
7 1 76 L. BAZ FRA Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 20 16.078
8 8 91 L. HASLAM GBR PATA Honda World Superbike Honda CBR1000RR 20 16.098
9 9 22 A. LOWES GBR Voltcom Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 20 16.554
10 11 24 T. ELIAS ESP Red Devils Roma Aprilia RSV4 Factory 20 25.840
11 12 52 S. BARRIER FRA BMW Motorrad Italia SBK BMW S1000 RR EVO 20 36.839
12 16 32 S. MORAIS RSA IRON BRAIN Grillini Kawasaki Kawasaki ZX-10R EVO 20 55.531
13 17 11 J. GUARNONI FRA MRS Kawasaki Kawasaki ZX-10R EVO 20 55.980
14 21 16 G. RIZMAYER HUN BMW Team Toth BMW S1000 RR EVO 20 1’18.354
15 14 59 N. CANEPA ITA Althea Racing Ducati 1199 Panigale R EVO 20 1’26.338 261,0 2 1 54 13
16 23 20 A. YATES USA Team Hero EBR EBR 1190 RX 20 1’31.468
————————————————–Not Classified————————————————–
RET 15 21 A. ANDREOZZI ITA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R EVO 12 8 Laps
RET 20 10 I. TOTH HUN BMW Team Toth BMW S1000 RR 11 9 Laps
RET 22 99 G. MAY USA Team Hero EBR EBR 1190 RX 10 10 Laps
RET 19 71 C. CORTI ITA MV Agusta Reparto Corse MV Agusta F4 RR 6 14 Laps
RET 2 34 D. GIUGLIANO ITA Ducati Superbike Team Ducati 1199 Panigale R 2 18 Laps
RET 13 44 D. SALOM ESP Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R EVO 1 19 Laps
