Photography by Gold & Goose
At Portugal’s Motorland Aragón Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea scored his fourth World Superbike win in five rounds so far this season, but it didn’t come easy. Ducati mounted Chaz Davies mounted a serious charge on the final lap and actually took the lead briefly twice under braking, but Rea was strong out of the turns and had enough dive to hold off Davies by 0.051 seconds at the finish line.
Tom Sykes led much of the early part of the race, but couldn’t match the pace of Rea and Davies in the closing laps and he had to settle for third, almost five seconds back.
For Rea the victory was made even sweeter due to the fact he did it while battling a fever.
“I expect everything from Chaz because he races really hard,” Rea said of the closing lap battle for the lead. “I just want to thank Kawasaki and all my mechanics for making the package strong this weekend. We started a little bit behind. The biggest thanks have to go to the Clinica Mobile for giving me some energy this weekend because I really feel terrible with some fever and it was a hard race. I’ll go back now and rest for race two. Hopefully we can make some changes and be stronger in the end. For sure Chaz and the Ducati had a little more pace in the end.”
At the start Sykes led the pack into turn one, Alex Lowes bogged and fell to the back.
Five laps in and Sykes was leading with Davies and Rea closely in tow. Then a small gap back to a three-way battle between Haslam, Fores and Torres.
With 11 laps to go Rea made a nifty inside move to get past the Ducati of Davies and suddenly it was the two Kawasaki riders at the front of the field. Du Puniet pitted with issues on his Suzuki. Fores went to the front of that three-way fight with Haslam and Torres.
With eight laps to go the ever-smooth Rea chased down the aggressive looking Sykes and Rea appeared to have a much better pace. Rea sat on Sykes’ rear wheel for a couple of laps, probing and testing where he might make his move. Rea’s speed was confirmed with six to go when he made a clean move inside Sykes on a combo turn to take over the lead. The battle between the Kawasaki pair allowed Davies to close back in and it was a three-way fight for the lead.
Rea eased away from Sykes and Davies. Davies made desperate moves to try to get around Sykes to give chase, but Sykes proved to be a hard man to get by and Davies had his front wheel chopped once. With five to go Davies finally made the pass, was briefly drafted back by, but then outbraked Sykes again to get consolidate second. Davies then set off to try to catch Rea.
In the final laps Davies moved in to challenge. On the white flag lap Davies made stabs braking into turns deep and took the lead twice only to be squared up and beaten out of the corner both times by the stronger exiting Rea. And that’s how the race ended out of the final turn with Rea holding off Davies.
Sykes came home a lonely third. Haslam edged out his Aprilia teammate Torres for fourth.
The American-made EBRs finished 15th and 17th with Niccolò Canepa over teammate Larry Pegram.
The win, his fourth in five races so far, pushed Rea’s series lead to 22 points going into the second race.
World Superbike Race 1 – Motorland Aragón, April 12, 2015
1 65 REA Jonathan Kawasaki ZX-10R
2 7 DAVIES Chaz Ducati Panigale R +0.051
3 66 SYKES Tom Kawasaki ZX-10R +4.977
4 91 HASLAM Leon Aprilia RSV4 RF +15.088
5 81 TORRES Jordi Aprilia RSV4 RF +15.290
6 112 FORES Xavi Ducati Panigale R +16.655
7 18 TEROL Nicolas Ducati Panigale R +17.365
8 36 MERCADO Leandro Ducati Panigale R +25.527
9 1 GUINTOLI Sylvain Honda CBR1000RR SP +31.464
10 2 CAMIER Leon MV Agusta 1000 F4 +43.013
11 51 BARRAGÁN Santiago Kawasaki ZX-10R +43.627
12 15 BAIOCCO Matteo Ducati Panigale R +44.893
13 40 RAMOS Román Kawasaki ZX-10R +47.663
14 23 PONSSON Christophe Kawasaki ZX-10R +71.843
15 59 CANEPA Niccolò EBR 1190 RX +75.919
16 90 ALVIZ Javier Kawasaki ZX-10R +80.816
17 72 PEGRAM Larry EBR 1190 RX +82.279
18 10 TOTH Imre BMW S1000 RR 1 LAP +1
19 75 RIZMAYER Gábor BMW S1000 RR 1 LAP +40.021
NC 22 LOWES Alex Suzuki GSX-R1000 5 LAPS +4 L
RT 86 BADOVINI Ayrton BMW S1000 RR 2 LAPS RETIRED
RT 60 VD MARK Michael Honda CBR1000RR SP 9 LAPS RETIRED
RT 14 DE PUNIET Randy Suzuki GSX-R1000 11 LAPS RETIRED
RT 44 SALOM David Kawasaki ZX-10R 12 LAPS RETIRED
