WorldSBK: Tom Sykes Wins Again in Race 2 and the New Pirelli Development Rear Tire in the SC0 Compound is Once Again the Most Used Option; Third Win for Kenan Sofuoglu in WorldSSP

The British Rider Repeats Yesterdays Performance Ahead of Teammate Jonathon Rea, Bringing Home a Double Win for Kawasaki, Winning in Supersport as Well With Sofuoglu; De Rosa Wins in the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup Race

CASTLE DONINGTON (England) – Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) was the undisputed star of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship this weekend at Donington Park.

After winning Race 1 on Saturday, the Englishman also won Race 2, earning important points for the championship standings and matching Carl Fogarty’s record as the rider who has won the most consecutive races in history (eight) on the same circuit: in fact, the Kawasaki rider has won consistently on the Donington Park circuit from 2013 to date, as did “the King” who won all the races at Assen from 1993 to 1996.

It was a great weekend for the V0377, the new soft rear option developed by Pirelli, which was once again confirmed in Race 2 as the option most widely used and the riders will definitely have it available again for the next round in Misano to continue testing its features.

Compared to Race 1, in Race 2 Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) got off the line well right away from pole position and stayed in the lead from start to finish. At the start, Jonathan Rea, Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) tried to keep pace with him, but it was soon clear that the only one who could really be a threat to him was his teammate. Meanwhile Giugliano dropped from fourth to sixth position on the third lap, making it clear that a repeat of his second place finish in Race 1 would be quite difficult.

After a few laps the two Kawasaki riders formed a separate leading duo, separated by just two tenths and creating a huge gap behind them.

From the nineteenth lap Rea launched an attack on Sykes for the top step of the podium, seeming to succeed but then running long on a turn to be overtaken by the Englishman.

Tom Sykes was too fast even for the current Championship leader, going on to win Race 2 as well, just ahead of his teammate and Ducati rider Chaz Davies. With this victory, Sykes is now in second place in the championship, lying 56 points behind Jonathan Rea and six points ahead of Chaz Davies. Kawasaki easily leads the Manufacturer Championship with 321 points, 53 ahead of Ducati.

Race 2 standings:

1) Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team)

2) Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team)

3) Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)

4) Lorenzo Savadori (IodaRacing Team)

5) Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse)

6) Nicky Hayden (Honda World Superbike Team)

7) Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)

8) Michael van der Mark (Honda World Superbike Team)

9) Joshua Brookes (Milwaukee BMW)

10) Cameron Beaubier (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team)

In the FIM Supersport World Championship, Turkish rider Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) started off well from pole position, followed by Patrick Jacobsen (Honda World Supersport Team), who had started from second position on the grid, and Randy Krummenacher (Puccetti Racing Kawasaki) who, after starting from the fifth spot, moved quickly up into third. On the fifth lap, Sofuoglu already had a lead of more than a second over Honda’s American rider. During the seventh lap the Puccetti Racing Kawasaki team rider’s advantage increased to more than two seconds, while Randy Krummenacher reduced the gap behind Patrick Jacobsen to three tenths. Bringing up fourth was Gino Rea (GRT Racing Team).

The top positions would remain the same throughout the race: in the final laps Kenan Sofuoglu managed the advantage gained in the first part of the race well and crossed the finish line first. Behind him and divided by more than a second and a half were the Turkish rider’s teammate, Patrick Jacobsen and Swiss rider Randy Krummenacher. With three wins out of six in the Championship races held so far, Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Racing Team) leads the Rider Championship with 121 points, preceding his teammate Randy Krummenacher who has 95 points and Patrick Jacobsen with 76 points. With two riders in the top two spots of the Championship, Kawasaki leads the Manufacturer Championship with 156 points, 25 ahead of Honda, lying in second.

Supersport standings:

1) Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)

2) Patrick Jacobsen (Honda World Supersport Team)

3) Randy Krummenacher (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)

4) Gino Rea (GRT Racing Team)

5) Luke Stapleford (Profile Racing)

6) Kyle Smith (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda)

7) Alex Baldolini (Race Department ATK#25)

8) Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse)

9) Ayrton Badovini (Gemar Balloons – Team Lorini)

10) Lorenzo Zanetti (MV Agusta Reparto Corse)

Between the WorldSSP race and WorldSBK Race 2, the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup race was held. Taking the win was Raffaele de Rosa (Althea BMW Racing Team) who started from pole position. Crossing the line behind him were Leandro Mercado (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team)and Niccolò Canepa (PATA Yamaha Official Stock Team). These were important points that the Italian earned astride his BMW because they allow him to increase the gap ahead of the Argentinian in the Championship standings where De Rosa now leads with 82 points, followed by Mercado at 77 and the other Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team rider, Michael Ruben Rinaldi, with 47. In this case, however, Ducati is leading the Manufacturer Standings with 86 points, just four ahead of BMW.

Finally, in the WIL Sport European Junior Cup, the race that opened up the events on Sunday, with twenty-nine participants on the grid and eleven laps to race, the win went to Spaniard Mika Perez (Granshagen Racing Team) ahead of Frenchman Dorian Laville (Team Laville Mi&Do)and Italian Paolo Grassia (Chiodo Moto Racing). With this win Perez moves into the championship lead with 61 points, 11 ahead of Laville and 15 ahead of Soomer.

The Pirelli compounds chosen by the riders for Race 2 and Supersport:

In the WorldSBK race today the same tire selections as yesterday were made, with the exception of Chaz Davies who swapped out the S1699 from yesterday on the front with the standard SC3 and Nicky Hayden who went with the standard SC2 instead of the SC3. The S1699 SC1 was once again the most popular choice, along with the standard SC3.

On the rear, Brookes and Scassa switched to the new V0377 SC0 development option. This option was the undisputed protagonist of the Donington weekend, as it was chosen in both races by more than 90% of the riders on the grid.

In WorldSSP only the standard DIABLO™ Supercorsa tires were available to the riders. On the rear, with asphalt temperatures reaching 27 degrees Celsius, most of the riders went with the SC0, the soft option in the range. On the first four rows, the only riders who used the SC1, the medium hard compound, were Luke Stapleford and Gino Rea. On the front, almost all the riders went with the standard SC1, the soft option. Stapleford, Cluzel and Bergman chose the hard option, the SC2.

Pirelli statistics for Race 2:

Number of tires available for each Superbike rider: 70, including 37 front and 33 rear

Pirelli statistics for Supersport:

Number of tires available for each Superbike rider: 42, including 21 front and 21 rear