WSBK Race One Report

Northern Ireland’s Eugene Laverty has produced a masterful performance to win the opening world superbike race at Phillip Island this afternoon.

After completing lap one in seventh and nearly 5 seconds down on the leader, Laverty put his head down and carved his way through the pack with speed and precision, finally hitting the lead on lap 17 and going on to win by nearly three seconds. It was Suzuki’s first world superbike victory since 2010, and Laverty’s second at Phillip Island.

Factory Aprilia pairing Marco Melandri and long-time race leader Sylvain Guintoli – he held the station for the opening 16 laps — flashed across the finish line in second and third, while Ducati’s Davide Guigliano (Ducati) faded to finish fourth after spending the majority of the race in the top three.

Loris Baz (Kawasaki) finally got the better of a race-long scrap with Jonathan Rea (Honda), while world champion Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) started his campaign in seventh. Chaz Davies (Ducati) was a lonely eighth in the 22-lapper, and also set a new lap record of 1:30.949 on lap two, eclipsing Laverty’s 1:31.168 from 2013.

Australia’s Glenn Allerton (BMW) was superb, and was heavily involved in a ding-dong scrap for Evo class honours with David Salom (Kawasaki) and Niccolo Canepa (Ducati). The internationals eventually got the better of him, but the Australian still picked up world championship points after finishing 11th, and third overall in the EVO category.

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Casualties in race one included rookie Alex Lowes (Suzuki), Toni Elias (Aprilia) and Leon Haslam (Honda), who all crashed at high speed within the opening five laps.

Race two will be held at 2:40pm this afternoon.

Superbike Race One Results

1	4	58 E.LAVERTY	IRL	VoltcomCrescentSuzuki	SuzukiGSX-R1000	22		1’30.969	317,6	1’30.385	305,9	25	25	1
2	3	33 M.MELANDRI	ITA	ApriliaRacingTeam	ApriliaRSV4Factory	22	2.959	1’30.968	318,6	1’30.332	319,5	20	20	2
3	1	50 S.GUINTOLI	FRA	ApriliaRacingTeam	ApriliaRSV4Factory	22	3.034	1’31.091	317,6	1’30.038	317,6	16	16	3
4	2	34 D.GIUGLIANO	ITA	DucatiSuperbikeTeam	Ducati1199PanigaleR	22	6.972	1’30.990	312,1	1’30.135	309,5	13	13	4
5	7	76 L.BAZ	FRA	KawasakiRacingTeam	KawasakiZX-10R	22	11.132	1’31.191	316,7	1’30.796	306,8	11	11	5
6	6	65 J. REA	GBR	PATAHondaWorldSuperbike	HondaCBR1000RR	22	11.718	1’31.269	314,0	1’30.660	307,7	10	10	6
7	8	1 T. SYKES	GBR	KawasakiRacingTeam	KawasakiZX-10R	22	15.612	1’31.307	320,5	1’30.835	308,6	9	9	7
8	11	7 C.DAVIES	GBR	DucatiSuperbikeTeam	Ducati1199PanigaleR	22	25.724	1’30.949	313,0	1’31.281	305,1	8	8	8
9	12	44 D.SALOM	ESP	KawasakiRacingTeam	KawasakiZX-10REVO	22	37.407	1’32.807	303,4	1’31.950	297,5	7	7	9
10	10	59 N.CANEPA	ITA	AltheaRacing	Ducati1199 PanigaleREVO	22	37.468	1’32.251	302,5	1’31.274	294,3	6	6	10
11	19	14 G.ALLERTON	AUS	BMWMotorradItaliaSBK	BMWS1000RREVO	22	39.271	1’32.892	306,8	1’33.605	291,9	5	5	11
12	15	9 F. FORET	FRA	MAHIRacingTeam India	KawasakiZX-10REVO	22	45.212	1’32.980	300,0	1’32.248	290,3	4	4	12
13	14	71 C.CORTI	ITA	MVAgustaRC-Yakhnich M.	MVAgustaF4RR	22	50.249	1’33.154	303,4	1’32.187	300,0	3	3	13
14	17	11 J. GUARNONI	FRA	MRSKawasaki	KawasakiZX-10REVO	22	1’17.134	1’33.695	295,9	1’33.146	291,9	2	2	14
15	18	32 S.MORAIS	RSA	IRONBRAINKawasakiSBK	KawasakiZX-10REVO	22	1’23.686	1’33.486	295,1	1’33.404	291,1	1	1	15
16	20	10 I. TOTH	HUN	BMWTeamToth	BMWS1000RR	22	1’30.651	1’34.664	307,7	1’34.137	303,4
17	22	20 A.YATES	USA	Team HeroEBR	EBR1190 RX	21	1 Lap	1’35.830	274,8	1’35.521
————————————————–Not Classified————————————————–
RET	16	21 A.ANDREOZZI	ITA	TeamPedercini	KawasakiZX-10REVO	14	8 Laps	1’33.723	299,2	1’32.902	298,3
RET	9	91 L.HASLAM	GBR	PATAHondaWorldSuperbike	HondaCBR1000RR	4	18 Laps	1’31.566	314,0	1’31.138	306,8
RET	5	22 A.LOWES	GBR	VoltcomCrescentSuzuki	SuzukiGSX-R1000	3	19 Laps	1’31.082	320,5	1’30.421	305,1
RET	13	24 T. ELIAS	ESP	RedDevilsRoma	ApriliaRSV4Factory	3	19 Laps	1’32.032	319,5	1’32.107	307,7