Sykes new Championship leader after Race 2 win at Imola

Imola (Italy) - Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) completed a fantastic double-win at Imola, his second in 2013, to become the new Championship leader.

The Hudderfield-born rider has led every single lap of Race 2 to cross the line as the winner for the 10th time in his WSBK career and, thanks to his 5th first place finish of the year, to equal the number of individual wins he was able to achieve in the last two seasons combined.

After the disappointment of the first race, Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) redeemed himself to end up a lonely second ahead of works Aprilia rider Sylvain Guintoli.

Fourth place Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet) edged his team mate Chaz Davies for fourth place at the very last lap, while Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) won the battle for sixth ahead of Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki).

Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Aprilia) managed to pulled away in the end for from a still recuperating Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) and fellow Italian Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) for 8th.

Tom Sykes: “I have had two perfect weekends out of the last three events and for this I am truly happy. It is a special weekend for many reasons and also the incident last year with my 2012 team-mate Joan Lascorz. There was not one time on any lap when I have exited turn six and not thought about his accident.

I hope that this is a small, small tribute to him. I have every single individual member of the Kawasaki staff and teams to thank, and our great technical sponsors. Hopefully now this is a beginning of a challenge but we will see how we go.”

Jonathan Rea: "Really mixed emotions today. I made a mistake on the first lap of race one, but made a lot of ground up and then unfortunately crashed when I was pushing for the podium with a couple of laps to go.

In race two I couldn’t go with the two guys ahead, so they gapped me and by half distance, Tom had eked out a lead tenth by tenth. I need to work with my crew to make the bike better with a full fuel load and fresh tyres, but we can leave Imola with our heads held high and we look forward now to Moscow."

World Supersport - Sofuoglu wins, Lowes recovers to 2nd

Kenan Sofuoglu (Mahi Racing Team India Kawasaki) is back on the top step of the podium following a superb performance in the World Supersport race at Imola. The defending Champion led the entire, that was shortened to 14 laps after the technical problem occurred to Valentin Debise (Prorace Honda) and the oil left on track by hisCBR 600RR, that brought to a Red Flag situation.

2nd place Sam Lowes (Yakhnich Motorsport Yamaha) did an outstanding recovery, following a difficult start, to finish ahead of team mate Vladimir Leonov thanks to a successful last-turn overtake. The Russian rider was able to keep the pace of the winner in the early part of the race, showing a renewed confidence after a tough first half of the season.

Pata Honda riders Lorenzo Zanetti and Michael van der Mark finished 4th and 5th respectively, while Luca Scassa (Intermoto Ponyexpres Kawasaki) won a spectacular fight for sixth position over Andrea Antonelli (Goeleven Kawasaki).

An incredible battle saw Scassa's team mate Florian Marino edging out six hungry rivals, to a final 8th place. Fabien Foret found himself in the mix after running wide at Turn 11, during lap 12, eventually finishing twelfth.

WSBK