Rea tops Misano Race 2 from van der Mark & Melandri
Manuel Bastianelli takes first SSP300 win
Tom Toparis 19th – Tom Edwards 26th in SSP300
Markus Reiterberger wins Superstock 1000
Jonathan Rea has topped off another great weekend of racing, taking the second Misano race win, and further cementing his domination of the WorldSBK standings, with a 92-point gap from second placed Chaz Davies following Round 9.
Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli proved a worthy round on which to leave the WorldSBK championship for the summer break, as Race 2 saw countless overtakes and the final battle going down to the line.
With all riders being forced to dig deep to hold their position to the line, it was Rea who came out on top, beating Michael van der Mark, with 0.6s separating the top three at race finish.
Xavi Fores made a blistering run at the lights, flying into first place, but a technical issue ended the Spaniard’s race just two laps later. Meanwhile, Rea jumped straight up to fifth, but was then caught up with Chaz Davies on the second lap.
With van der Mark making the most of the open track ahead, Rea was left to fight through, with both factory Ducati bikes in his sights. Rea’s duel with Davies saw the defending champion coming out in front after an ambitious move through Turn 14. Then, with both Rea and Marco Melandri finding their way past Tom Sykes, the pair engaged in an electric battle all through laps seven and eight, trading places several times for second.
Ultimately, Rea prevailed again, and began his hunt of the race leader, now over a second ahead and twelve laps around Misano to go. The Kawasaki rider finally caught van der Mark with five laps to go – and so did Melandri, hanging on to the ZX-10RR’s pace. The trio went into the closing laps with less than half a second separating them.
With the Ducati suddenly breathing down both their necks, Rea chose to make his move with three laps to go. A feint down Turn 1, a stunning pass down the inside through 2, and making it stick on the exit from the Variante del Parco: Rea first, and perhaps his hardest win of the season secured.
While he couldn’t fight back in the remaining turns, van der Mark had just enough left in the tank to defend his position from Melandri, taking second place at the flag and guaranteeing a fourth consecutive weekend with a Yamaha bike on the podium. Melandri couldn’t repeat his phenomenal win from last season’s Race Two, but a return to the rostrum in third will have left both the Ducati rider and the home fans ecstatic after a few difficult races.
Davies finally crossed the line in fourth, not quite able to consistently match the front pace. A difficult end after a promising start for the Welshman, who now enters the summer break 89 points behind Rea. He finished ahead of Sykes in fifth.
After a race to forget yesterday, Alex Lowes bounced back brilliantly in sixth despite having to start from the back of row 4. He endured a late charge from Lorenzo Savadori in seventh, who managed to beat his teammate Eugene Laverty this time around, with the Irish rider finishing eighth.
Loris Baz came back from his early crash in yesterday’s event with a ninth position, with Leon Camier closing the top ten. Michael Ruben Rinaldi was the best independent rider in Rimini, taking eleventh.
SBK is back in two months’ time, with Round 10 of the championship kicking off in Portimao!
Jonathan Rea – P1
“That was a super-super hard race. Yesterday I controlled the race. I could lead from the front, make my rhythm and go away. Today I could not make that in the beginning and I spent so much tyre and energy coming through the traffic. The bikes are so evenly matched now it is so hard to make a pass and make it stick. It was a hard job to track down Mikey and when I arrived I was starting to panic a little bit with five laps to go. I wanted to be in the lead by that stage and make a gap. I was worried about getting through because he was not making mistakes, but then he ran into the last corner a little bit deep, and I was able to pull alongside and outbrake him in T1. I made a lot of passes in that race and it was really hard work.”
Michael van der Mark – P2
“My start wasn’t that great so I followed Xavi Fores for a couple of laps, but I think he had a problem and I passed him. Once at the front I tried to do my own pace and find my own rhythm. I thought I would be a bit faster, but in the hot temperatures it was difficult. I saw that the three riders behind were involved in a big fight, so I just tried to stay as consistent as possible. I managed to pull a bit of a gap but then lap-by-lap Johnny Rea was getting closer and he eventually passed me when I made a small mistake. I could follow him and stay close for the last two laps, but I didn’t quite have enough to overtake him. A bit disappointed to miss out on the win but second is really good for the championship and a nice way to go into the summer break.”
Marco Melandri – P3
“It’s been a super fun race. After a difficult and unlucky weekend so far, together with the team we finally found an ideal setup for the new front tire. Unfortunately, we couldn’t ride in FP3 and FP4 and this penalized us in Race 1, but today we redeemed ourselves. I felt comfortable on the bike, I could be aggressive and I fought a nice battle with Rea, even though it made us lose a bit of ground on VD Mark. Towards the end I wanted to attack but, after a couple of big risks, I realized we were too close to the limit. Anyhow, it’s nice to go on holiday with a podium and I’m confident we’ll soon win again.”
Chaz Davies – P4
“Today I felt we had the potential to be in the mix and it was a good battle early on, but after five or six laps we unexpectedly started to struggle with rear traction. I’m a little bit disappointed, because we made some changes after Race 1 but we didn’t go the right way. That said, overall it’s been a really good, solid weekend, much better than last year, so I can’t complain. In the last couple of races we’ve been consistent and uncovered a few important details. Going into the summer break just missing the podium will put a little extra fire in the belly ahead of the last four rounds.”
Tom Sykes – P5
“Today was a big step in performance and we had a much better feeling with the chassis. With that we made a big step forward and it is a shame that we did not use this front fork at the beginning of the weekend. I just could not get the bike to do what I needed in some areas and I gave up a little bit of performance. In a lot of areas the bike was working really well. We just lost the edge grip, which is strange because the lap time was really consistent all race. I lost a lot of time at the beginning when I tried to push on new tyres I just could not do it. The bike performance compared to yesterday was much, much better.”
Alex Lowes – P6
“The weekend started really well on Friday, but then I had a really tough day yesterday so to bounce back to come from 12th to sixth was good. I still didn’t feel too comfortable in the race; I had a really good start and first few laps and I expected to be able to challenge a little bit more but it didn’t quite happen today. I’ll take the points and learn what I can from the weekend, even from yesterday because there’s something to be learnt from that too. It was nice to see another podium for Michael at another track with the Yamaha; we’re there every weekend now. We didn’t quite get the best from the weekend but I’m happy to pick up points today.”
Lorenzo Savadori – P7
“The first part of Race 2 was difficult, and it’s still an area I have problems with. The front tyre and fuel load made the bike hard to ride and I wasn’t able to push. I lost too much time to the guys ahead really, my pace in the middle was not so bad and I got close to Lowes near the end, but I was too far to catch up. If we can improve this area then for sure it will help me a lot to fight. The Portimao test will be very useful, and I hope to resolve my race start problems. The summer is long but I know the team will work very hard to make us fast, and I want to thank them for all of their hard work.”
Eugene Laverty – P8
“Race 2 was very strange for me. Compared with yesterday I just had no rear grip from the start, it felt like the rear was cold and just wouldn’t stop spinning. I tried to adapt my riding and find grip when the bike was upright like I normally would but it didn’t happen. We’ve done a fantastic job overall this weekend to progress the way we have. FP1 wasn’t great but we changed and adapted the bike, and we were nearly set for second yesterday. It was a hell of a performance to back Laguna up with, it was just unfortunate we couldn’t get that extra place heading into the summer. At the Portimao test we’ll be working on making the bike stop better, that’s the main area we struggle with when battling with other riders. Aprilia have some ideas to try and now that we’ve got the bike in a good place it’s a great opportunity to progress and put ourselves in a good position for the end of the season.
#RiminiWorldSBK at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli – Race 2
- Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)
- Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) +0.334
- Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.595
WorldSBK 2018 – Misano – Standings after Race 2
- Jonathan Rea 370
- Chaz Davies 278
- Michael van der Mark 248
- Tom Sykes 218
- Marco Melandri 193
- Alex Lowes 193
- Xavi Fores 164
- Eugene Laverty 113
- Toprak Razgatlioglu 100
- Lorenzo Savadori 92
- Leon Camier 88
- Loris Baz 86
- Jordi Torres 80
- Michael Ruben Rinaldi 59
- Leandro Mercado 53
WorldSSP300
Manuel Bastianelli scored a stunning first win in the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, finding his way to the front near the end and just defending the top spot from a last-lap blitz by Mika Pérez . Just 0.036 seconds separated the pair, with Manuel González taking his first podium finish in third.
After three races dominated from lights to flag by the respective pole sitters, the WorldSSP300 championship returned to a trademark last lap scrap at Misano, with the top fifteen riders separated by just three seconds. Several riders pushed amidst the chaos around the 4.226 kilometre track, but it was ultimately the wildcard who prevailed, to the enjoyment of the Misano crowds.
Bastianelli rode full-time in WorldSSP300 last season, taking just four points across nine races, but here at the Riviera di Rimini Round the Italian turned up spectacularly for his home fans.
Mika Pérez had not taken a podium since the opening round of the season, but he overcame the huge group of riders in the mix as well as a six-place grid penalty to rise to the rostrum in second. Pérez chose to attack in the final lap, gaining several places and coming just metres away from making it to the top.
Fifteen-year-old González joined the two Kawasaki bikes on the podium with his best WorldSSP300 result, beating Luca Bernardi to the line for third.
Luca Grunwald did more than damage limitation in his climb from eighteenth on the grid, making it to the flag in fifth after even managing to lead the race. A spectacular fightback from the German, who now moves to second in the championship, 16 points behind Ana Carrasco. The Spaniard was tenth on Sunday, but her lead remains nearly intact after both Borja Sánchez and Scott Deroue retired from the race.
Maria Herrera managed her best WorldSSP300 result with sixth place, with pole-sitter Galang Hendra Pratama falling to seventh despite making a phenomenal start.
Tom Toparis took 19th, while fellow Australian Tom Edwards was 26th.
Manuel Bastianelli
“It was a fantastic race, even though the start was a bit difficult. We seemed to have a good rhythm and I was able to be quite aggressive with some of the riders and we did it little by little every lap. Then on the last lap we managed to bring home the victory. I want to say thank you to all of my team.”
#RiminiWorldSBK WorldSSP300 at Misano – Race
- Manuel Bastianelli (PRODINA IRCOS Team)
- Mika Perez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) +0.036
- Manuel Gonzalez (Pertamina Almeria BCD Junior Team by MS) +0.112
#RiminiWorldSBK – WorldSSP300 at Misano – Standings
- Ana Carrasco 84
- Luca Grunwald 68
- Borja Sanchez 58
- Scott Deroue 55
- Dorren Loureiro 53
- Galang Hendra Pratama 52
- Mika Perez 52
- Koen Meuffels 49
- Glenn Van Straalen 47
- Walid Khan 42
- Jan-Ole Jähnig 38
- Nick Kalinin 33
- Maria Herrera 32
- Manuel Gonzalez 27
- Manuel Bastianelli 25
STK1000
Markus Reiterberger rode to another spectacular win in the European Superstock 1000 Championship, increasing his championship lead to 14 points with just two rounds to go. The German was unstoppable from lights to flag at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, taking his fourth win of the campaign ahead of Maximilian Scheib and Riccardo Russo.
As the lights went out it was a stunning start for Reiterberger as he looked as comfortable as always on his BMW machine, never looking back once he got away from the line. But his competitors were on the hunt for the podium, as Scheib kept one eye on the championship standings looking for second position.
Keeping the fight going until the end of the race, there were two stunning battles on the cards for the final podium spots, with Scheib just managing to hold off Russo in the closing laps. The Chilean, who started the race from fifth, takes his fifth consecutive podium of the year and remains well in contention for the championship. The Italian won’t be too displeased however, as the former MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship rider managed to grab just his second STK1000 podium.
Another exciting battle behind took place between home heroes Roberto Tamburini and Federico Sandri . After a poor start to his race, falling to eighth, ‘Tambo’ mounted a sensational comeback, finally beating his fellow countryman in the last lap for fourth position, with Sandi in fifth.
Wildcard Axel Bassani finished the Misano race in sixth, ahead of Florian Marino in seventh. A trio of Italian riders closed off the top ten, with Samuele Cavalieri in eighth, Luca Vitali in ninth, and Gabriele Ruiu tenth.
#RiminiWorldSBK – STK1000 at Misano – Standings
- Markus Reiterberger 124
- Maximilian Scheib 110
- Roberto Tamburini 97
- Federico Sandi 72
- Florian Marino 67
- Luca Vitali 59
- Riccardo Russo 46
- Alessandro Delbianco 35
- Gabriele Ruiu 33
- Matteo Ferrari 25
