Imola (Italy), Sunday 11 May 2014 – The action packed fourth round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship, which was held in front of 52,841 vocal and enthusiast fans at Imola, saw a total domination by the Pata Honda Team. The Dutch based squad won both World Superbike races courtesy of a superb performance by Jonathan Rea, as well as claiming a one-two finish in the World Supersport encounter, with Lorenzo Zanetti scoring his maiden win in the series ahead of Michael van der Mark.
Rea and van der Mark now lead the World Superbike and Supersport standings respectively, both for the first time ever.
The Ducati Superbike Team was also well represented on the podium in its home round, as Chaz Davies was twice second at the chequered flag. Today’s two WSBK podiums were completed by Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team), who lie now 4 and 16 points behind the new leader, in second and third.
A one day, official post-race test is scheduled for tomorrow at Imola’s Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
Jonathan Rea: “It’s been a great weekend for me! I couldn’t have imagined doubling up coming here. But I knew we’d be strong because it’s a circuit I really enjoy and one that the bike goes really well at. We’ll try to make the bike better in tomorrow’s official test and go to Donington hopefully to keep this ball rolling. I’m really enjoying riding right now and I want to thank everyone who’s put the work in. Not just the track staff here but the guys back at base in Nieuwleusen (Netherlands). It’s also the home round for our sponsors, Pata, so a big thanks to them, too.”
Chaz Davies: “These have been the best races of the season and undoubtedly my best race weekend so far, in that we’ve been consistently strong since Friday. It’s great to be on the podium and is the best way to thank Ducati and all of the guys, both in the team and the factory, for all of their hard work. I can almost ride the bike as I would like, we just have a small problem with rear vibration to iron out but tomorrow, during the tests, we will also work on this and I’m sure we’ll be able to improve. I’m very pleased with the double podium of course and it confirms how much work has been done in Ducati over the last months, so I want to dedicate today’s results to Ducati and all the fans.”
Race 1
The sun continued to shine at Imola as the first race of the day got underway in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd. From the start it was Pole Position setter Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) who immediately took the lead ahead of the Aprilia Racing Team duo of Marco Melandri and Sylvain Guintoli. Chaz Davies (Ducati Racing Team) moved up to second at the end of… (read more)
Race 2
Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) once again made the best start as race two, but unlike race one, Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) and Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team) who also started from the front row, made equally impressive starts to ensure that they were in contention from the beginning. The race two pace was a lot higher than the earlier encounter as Rea lapped at (read more)
Standings (Round 4 of 13): 1. Rea 139; 2. Sykes 135; 3. Guintoli 123; 4. Baz 119; 5. Davies 87; 6. Melandri 84; 7. Giugliano 69; 8. Laverty 62; 9. Haslam 58; 10. Lowes 50; 11. Elias 50; 12. Salom 34; 13. Canepa 28; 14. Camier 20; 15. Scassa 16; 16. Foret 10; 17. Morais 10; 18. Guarnoni 7; 19. Allerton 6; 20. Bos 5; 21. Corti 5; 22. Fabrizio 2; 23. Andreozzi 1. Manufacturers: 1. Kawasaki 143; 2. Honda 139; 3. Aprilia 133; 4. Ducati 113; 5. Suzuki 92; 6. BMW 26; 7. MV Agusta 5.
Superstock 1000
Ondrej Jezek (Barni Racing Ducati) took the first win of his career after a determined ride to fend off Fabio Massei (EAB Racing Ducati) in the third round of the FIM Superstock 1000cc Cup at Imola today.
Taking the lead at the end of the opening lap, Lorenzo Savadori (Pedercini Kawasaki) had built up a commanding lead only to be ruled out of contention as his Kawasaki suffered a technical… (read more)
Results: 1. Jezek (Ducati) 14 Laps/69.104 km in 26’00.349 average 159.435 kph; 2. Massei (Ducati) 1.394; 3. Mercado (Ducati) 12.506; 4. Lanusse (Kawasaki) 22.812; 5. Day (Honda) 31.274; 6. Nemeth (Kawasaki) 31.960; 7. McFadden (Kawasaki) 33.357; 8. Muresan (BMW) 40.829; 9. D’Annunzio (BMW) 42.727; 10. Suchet (Kawasaki) 43.049; 11. Lussiana (Kawasaki) 43.206; 12. Pagaud (Kawasaki) 43.362; 13. Schacht (Ducati) 48.419; 14. Moser (Ducati) 48.650; 15. Grotzkyj G. (Kawasaki) 50.731; etc.
Standings (Round 3 of 7): 1. Mercado 52; 2. Jezek 45; 3. Savadori 33; 4. Valk 32; 5. Lussiana 31; 6. Massei 28; 7. Lanusse 28; 8. McFadden 27; 9. Day 21; 10. D’Annunzio 20; 11. Nemeth 17; 12. Smith 16; 13. Bergman 13; 14. Grotzkyj G. 10; 15. Pagaud 10; 16. Muresan 8; 17. Suchet 8; 18. Schacht 8; 19. Walraven 6; 20. Castellarin 4; 21. Moser 2; 22. Ayer 1. Manufacturers: 1. Ducati 70; 2. Kawasaki 58; 3. Honda 32; 4. BMW 21; 5. Suzuki 6.
European Junior Cup
Augusto Fernandez (WIL Sport) has come out victorious at the end of an exciting battle for the victory in the Pata European Junior Cup, powered by Honda race at Imola. The young Spaniard crossed the line a fraction of a second ahead of compatriot Javier Orellana (Europe Food SL), second, and Brit Josh Harland (Josh Harland), third, with several other protagonists who were also in contention for the win. Fernandez is now the new leader in the standings, 11 points ahead of today’s fifth place finisher Marc Miralles (Honda Spain).
Results: 1. Fernandez 9 Laps/44.424 km in 20’23.741 average 130.686 kph; 2. Orellana 0.102; 3. Harland 0.516; 4. Hubner 0.971; 5. Miralles 1.190; 6. Fernandez 1.523; 7. Grassia 1.706; 8. Hill 10.858; 9. Gabellini 33.914; 10. Perez 35.226; 11. Van Sikkelerus 35.824; 12. London 36.599; 13. Wisdom 52.059; 14. Ortt 59.569; 15. Moreno 1’00.035; etc.
Standings (Round 3 of 8): 1. Fernandez 63; 2. Miralles 52; 3. Orellana 48; 4. Hubner 40; 5. Harland 27; 6. Grassia 27; 7. Perez 22; 8. Fernandez 21; 9. Soomer 20; 10. London 18; 11. Licciardi 14; 12. Brink 13; 13. Wisdom 13; 14. Van Sikkelerus 11; 15.Hill 8; 16. Gabellini 7; 17. Geissler 4; 18. Zhu 4; 19. Moreno 3; 20. Ortt 2; 21. Patterson 2; 22. Levy 1.
