WorldSBK: Hayden Wins His First-Ever WSBK Race in the Wet Aboard His Honda and Ayrton Badovini Wins in WorldSSP; Pirelli DIABLO™ Rain Was the Tire of Choice For All Riders

On a Rainy Race Day, the World Champion “Kentucky Kid” Takes the Tokyo Manufacturer Back to the Top Step of the Podium After an Absence of Almost Two Years, While Indonesian Zulfahmi Khairrudin Scores a Podium in Front of His Home Crowd

SEPANG, Malaysia  – The second day of the MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship Malaysian round was held today at the Sepang International Circuit where it was strongly influenced by the heavy rainfall throughout the afternoon, forcing the riders in both categories to use Pirelli DIABLO™ Rain tires.

In these difficult weather conditions, American Nicky Hayden (Honda World Superbike Team) rode a spectacular race, taking his first-ever win in the Championship and bringing the Tokyo motorcycle manufacturer back to the top step of the podium after almost two years. In fact, the last Honda win in the FIM World Superbike Championship dates back to 2014, which was won by Jonathan Rea in Race 2 at Portimão.

Perhaps even more spectacular was the FIM Supersport World Championship race that featured a series of spectacular passes. Ultimately, Italian Ayrton Badovini (Gemar Balloons – Team Lorini) claimed the victory ahead of hometown Malaysian hero Zulfahmi Khairrudin (Orelac Racing VerdNatura).

In Race 2 of WorldSBK, Race 1 winner Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) got off the line well with teammate Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes on his Yamaha just behind him, although the latter was overtaken by Nicky Hayden (Honda World Superbike Team) shortly after.

Tom Sykes was overtaken first by Rea and then by Hayden, slipping back into third place ahead of Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) in fourth.

By the end of the first lap, the “Kentucky Kid”, as American rider Nicky Hayden is known, had taken the lead with a maneuver that put him ahead of Rea. In the meantime, Sykes was also overtaken by Davies to drop into fourth place and Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) began his comeback on the second lap, moving into fifth place.

On the third lap, Giugliano overtook Sykes, who was also passed by Anthony West a little later, relegating the Brit to sixth place.

In the early stages of the fourth lap, Lowes put a move on Michael Vd Mark to move into seventh place, but by the end of the lap the Dutchman had taken the position back.

The race progressed smoothly until the eighth lap when Giugliano came dangerously close to teammate Davies, running in third place at the time.

In the meantime, Nicky Hayden was riding strong at the front with a 3.5 second advantage over the group of Rea, Davies and Giugliano, who were giving chase and all three within one second of each other.

At the end of the tenth lap, just at the last turn, Rea was overtaken first by the Welsh Ducati rider and shortly thereafter by Gugliano, leaving Rea in fourth place.

Race leader Nicky Hayden continued his impressive riding out front and had pulled the pin to stretch out a 4.2 second gap ahead of the next closest rider Chaz Davies.

The turning point of the race came on the twelfth lap: Giugliano overtook his teammate to move into second place.

During the thirteenth lap, Rea tried to take at least the third step of the podium, getting quite close to Davies, eventually managing to get the better of him one lap later.

In the race finale, the Italian rider Giugliano, not satisfied with settling for second place, launched an attack on Hayden and closed the gap to just one second. However, the ace from Kentucky was unwavering as he managed the advantage en route to winning his first-career WorldSBK race ahead of the Roman’s Ducati and Rea’s Kawasaki.

Race 2 standings:

1) Nicky Hayden (Honda World Superbike Team)

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

3) Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team)

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

5) Anthony West (Pedercini Racing)

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

7) Alex De Angelis (IodaRacing Team)

8) Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team)

9) Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse)

10) Markus Reiterberger (Althea BMW Racing Team)

The FIM Supersport World Championship race was called a wet race from the start. Before the end of the first lap the red flag came out due to the heavy rainfall that reduced the riders’ visibility. The race was suspended and postponed until after the WorldSBK race.

When it resumed there were fourteen laps remaining. Poleman Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) was unable to exploit the advantage of starting from the first spot on the grid and was slowly overtaken by other riders. In third position, it was Gino Rea (GRT Racing Team) who moved up to take the provisional race lead, ahead of homtown hero Zulfahmi Khairrudin (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) who moved into the lead during the third lap. In the meantime, after starting from the sixth spot on the grid, Ayrton Badovini (Gemar Balloons – Team Lorini) cleared the way to move into second place behnd the Malaysian during the eighth lap. From the midpoint on, Badovini and Khairrudin gave the fans at the track and watching from home a great show. In the end, it was the Italian who came out on top, but the applause was all for the hometown hero standing on the second step of the podium. Rea finshised third on his MV Agusta machine.

Supersport standings:

1) Ayrton Badovini (Gemar Balloons – Team Lorini)

2) Zulfahmi Khairrudin (Orelac Racing VerdNatura)

3) Gino Rea (GRT Racing Team)

4) Patrick Jacobsen (Honda World Supersport Team)

5) Kyle Smith (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda)

6) Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)

7) Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse)

8) Randy Krummenacher (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)

9) Alex Baldolini (Race Department ATK#25)

10) Federico Caricasulo (Bardahl Evan Bros. Honda Racing)

The heavy rain that began to fall when the WorldSSP race was scheduled to start and that lasted for three hours, forced both the WorldSBK and WorldSSP riders to exclusively use tires from the DIABLO™ Rain range.

In fact, Race 2 started at the scheduled time but in a driving range. The FIM Supersport World Championship race on the other hand, was postponed and scheduled after the WorldSBK race when the rain had stopped, but the track was still completely wet. For this reason, all of the WorldSSP riders chose to use rain tires with the exception of Jules Cluzel who opted for the intermediate tire in the DIABLO™ Wet range for the rear.

Pirelli statistics for Race 2:

Number of tires available for each Superbike rider: 68, including 34 front and 34 rear

Pirelli statistics for Supersport:

Number of tires available for each Superbike rider: 50, including 26 front and 24 rear

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