Photography by Gold & Goose
It was a day of teammates helping the two championship contender in a wet World Superbike race one at Magny-Cours. Sylvain Guintoli took the victory to chop 12 points out of Sykes’ championship lead. But Guintoli was gifted the win by teammate Marco Melandri, who responded to what appeared to be team orders with two laps to go to let Guintoli go by. The margin at the end was 2.257 seconds. Honda’s Jonathan Rea finished third.
At the same time Kawasaki had team orders came into play as well, making it all too obvious with a pit board on the final laps that told Baz to lose a position. He did finally allow teammate and championship leader Tom Sykes through, but unlike a little classier way Melandri gave up his position, Baz did it almost petulantly, waiting until the final lap and then sitting up allowing Sykes past.
The points gained for Guintoli moved him from 31 points behind to just 19 with three races remaining on the schedule, including one more this afternoon in Magny-Cours.
Rea led the pack into the first turn to start the race reduced to from 21 to 19 laps. Sykes ran second early, but Guintoli moved up to take the position and a gaggle of riders battled for third. One of those was Chaz Davies, who crashed out on the brakes.
On lap three Guintoli moved up to battle Rea and took over the lead just before they crossed start-finish. Toni Elias crashed out next and a couple of riders pitted, including Alex Lowes. Eugene Laverty crashed on lap four as the attrition rate began to mount.
There was a lot of action on lap six. Davide Giugliano and Xavi Fores crashed. At the same time Melandri, Baz and Sykes moved up to pass Rea in a torrid three-rider battle for second.
Halfway through it was everything working out just the way he needed for Guintoli. He was out front by 3.9 seconds and seemingly unthreatened in first. Melandri was second over the Kawasaki duo of Baz and Sykes.
In the second half of the race Melandri began to close in on his Aprilia teammate. Guintoli needed the first place points to stay in the championship chase, but it didn’t appear his teammate was interested in helping. But ditto for Sykes with his teammate Baz, who has little care to help his teammate since he’s leaving for MotoGP next season.
On lap 14 Melandri passed Guintoli for the lead. Aprilia put an unhappy face on Melandri’s pit board signaling their unhappiness with Melandri hurting Guintoli’s championship hopes.
In the closing laps the picture seemed clear. Both championship contenders had teammates who were not looking to help their chances, but then suddenly with two laps to go Melandri waved his teammate by. Guintoli gladly accepted the invitation and sprinted to the front. Meanwhile Baz stayed in front of Sykes.
With two laps to go Sykes moved up to challenge his teammate, but amazingly Baz fought back and aggressively held off Sykes. As he took the white flag Baz saw a pit board that read “Lose 1P”. It was clear Baz was not happy about it, but he relented on the final set of turns and allowed Sykes pass for fourth.
“When I saw the weather forecast last night I thought we would have a good opportunity to catch a lot of points and it worked out well,” said Guintoli, who took his third victory of the season. “At the start of the race I took a lot of risks to increase the pace straight away. I just wanted to go away and it felt good. And then the gap was really big and then we had a bit of a play with Marco. He had a lot of speed. And then I controlled the gap to bring the points back. It was a funny race, especially in the first laps. Then the second part of the race was more like a procession really.”
Melandri, who clearly had the speed to win but showed great sportsmanship and team work by allowing Guintoli the win, said in the post-race press conference that “It’s OK. I think in life there is time to make sometimes one step backwards to try to make two forward. It’s OK, I’m working for Aprilia and this is my job for the moment.”
World Superbike Race 1 Results from Magny-Cours – Oct. 5, 2014
1 5 50 S. GUINTOLI FRA Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 Factory
2 6 33 M. MELANDRI ITA Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 Factory
3 3 65 J. REA GBR PATA Honda World Superbike Honda CBR1000RR
4 1 1 T. SYKES GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R
5 7 76 L. BAZ FRA Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R
6 10 91 L. HASLAM GBR PATA Honda World Superbike Honda CBR1000RR
7 2 34 D. GIUGLIANO ITA Ducati Superbike Team Ducati 1199 Panigale R
8 15 57 L. LANZI ITA 3C Racing Team Ducati 1199 Panigale R
9 12 27 M. NEUKIRCHNER GER 3C Racing Team Ducati 1199 Panigale R
10 13 52 S. BARRIER FRA BMW Motorrad Italia SBK BMW S1000 RR EVO
11 16 59 N. CANEPA ITA Althea Racing Ducati 1199 Panigale R EVO
12 21 11 J. GUARNONI FRA MRS Kawasaki Kawasaki ZX-10R EVO
13 18 71 C. CORTI ITA MV Agusta Reparto Corse MV Agusta F4 RR
14 23 67 B. STARING AUS IRON BRAIN Grillini Kawasaki Kawasaki ZX-10R EVO
15 20 9 F. FORET FRA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R EVO
16 27 74 N. SALCHAUD FRA Dream Team Company MV Agusta F4 RR
17 19 32 S. MORAIS RSA IRON BRAIN Grillini Kawasaki Kawasaki ZX-10R EVO
18 28 99 G. MAY USA Team Hero EBR EBR 1190 RX 17
19 9 58 E. LAVERTY IRL Voltcom Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 17
20 25 10 I. TOTH HUN BMW Team Toth BMW S1000 RR 16
————————————————–Not Classified————————————————–
RET 26 16 G. RIZMAYER HUN BMW Team Toth BMW S1000 RR EVO
RET 24 20 A. YATES USA Team Hero EBR EBR 1190 RX 7 12 Laps 2’09.307 230,8 1’42.406RET 11 212 X. FORES ESP 3C Racing Team Ducati 1199 Panigale R
RET 22 21 A. ANDREOZZI ITA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R EVO
RET 14 24 T. ELIAS ESP Red Devils Roma Aprilia RSV4 Factory
RET 8 22 A. LOWES GBR Voltcom Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000
RET 4 7 C. DAVIES GBR Ducati Superbike Team Ducati 1199 Panigale R
