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Magny-Cours WSBK: Tyre gamble delivers Davies victory

Chaz Davies was victorious in first World Superbike race at Magny-Cours after choosing the right tyre compound to start the race on a drying track.

Chaz Davies, Ducati Team

Chaz Davies, Ducati Team

Following a wet qualifying, conditions remained greasy at the start of the race and most riders, including Kawasaki duo Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes, opted to start on wets.

Fellow front-row starter Davies, however, picked the intermediate rear and, although he dropped outside of the top 10 on the opening lap, he recovered to win by a commanding margin of 9.8 seconds as the conditions improved.

The race kicked off with Sykes leading Rea, the duo first coming under pressure from the Hondas of Nicky Hayden and Michael van der Mark, then MV Agusta's Leon Camier.

Hayden and van der Mark soon came into the pits to change to slicks, but Hayden's bike slowed a couple of laps later and retired.

After being passed by Camier and Lorenzo Savadori (Ioda Aprilia), both Sykes and Rea went into the pits at the same time for slick tyres.

Camier and Savadori kept the top two positions up until Lap 16, but they couldn't defend from a charging Davies, who flew past the pair.

They also lost out to the slick-shod bikes of van der Mark, Sykes and Rea, the Dutchman narrowly keeping second on the line from Sykes.

Completing the race without a stop, Savadori salvaged fifth, ahead of French veteran Matthieu Lagrive (Pedercini Kawasaki) and Camier.

Xavi Fores, who was on the same strategy as Davies, took eighth on the Barni Ducati, ahead of local rider Sylvain Guintoli (Yamaha) and Alex de Angelis (Ioda Aprilia).

Race 1 results:

Cla#DriverBikeGap
1 7  Chaz Davies  Ducati  
2 60  Michael van der Mark  Honda 9.871
3 66  Tom Sykes  Kawasaki 10.218
4 1  Jonathan Rea  Kawasaki 18.031
5 32  Lorenzo Savadori  Aprilia 19.974
6 76  Mathieu Lagrive  Kawasaki 24.661
7 2  Leon Camier  MV Agusta 25.743
8 12  Xavi Forés  Ducati 27.409
9 50  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha 49.455
10 15  Alex de Angelis  Aprilia 52.570
11 22  Alex Lowes  Yamaha 52.788
12 25  Josh Brookes  BMW 53.947
13 40  Roman Ramos  Kawasaki 54.929
14 81  Jordi Torres  BMW 1'22.280
15 99  Luca Scassa  Ducati 1'27.383
16 17  Karel Abraham  BMW 1 lap
17 21  Markus Reiterberger  BMW 1 lap
18 11  Saeed Al Sulaiti  Kawasaki 1 lap
19 56  Peter Sebestyen  Yamaha 1 lap
20 94   Matthieu Lussiana  BMW 1 lap
21 4  Gianluca Vizziello  Kawasaki 1 lap
22 57   Alex Plancassagne  Yamaha 2 laps
23 10  Imre Toth  Yamaha 2 laps
Ret 69  Nicky Hayden  Honda 11 laps
Ret  9  Dominic Schmitter  Kawasaki 12 laps

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