MARCO MELANDRI DOMINATES THE AMERICAN RACE
SYLVAIN GUINTOLI FINISHES SECOND
Laguna Seca (California – USA), 13 July 2014 – The Aprilia RSV4s dominated Race 1 on the exciting Laguna Seca track in California to clean up in the American World Superbike round.
Off to an excellent start respectively from the second and first row, Melandri and Guintoli took the race lead in the first lap, taking advantage of an error by Tom Sykes at the “corkscrew”. The three immediately showed that they had a completely different pace than the rest and the progressively opened up the gap at the front. Before the midway point the two Aprilia standard bearers, with Melandri in the lead, progressively increased their advantage over Sykes until, in the second half of the race, Melandri set a pace that his French team mate was unable to keep, crossing the finish line first for the third time this season after his double win in Malaysia.
For his part Guintoli was able to maintain his lead over Sykes, taking an excellent second place.
On hand below the podium to comment on the triumph of the Italian bikes was Michele Colaninno, CEO of IMMSI and member of the Piaggio Group Board of Directors: “This is the victory of a team which has never stopped believing in results – a winning team in World SBK for five years in a row. Seeing the two Aprilia RSV4s flying by in front of everyone in this country and on this track which has such a great history is a great satisfaction, not only for me, but for the entire Italian motor sports community.”
Marco Melandri: “My start was great even if I was a bit nervous in the first laps since Tom usually tries to pull the pin straight away. When he made that mistake at the Corkscrew I thought that was the right opportunity to push it to the limit. I set my pace, staying focused and not making any mistakes. Only in the last few laps was I finally able to breath a little easier since I had gained a bit of an advantage over Sylvain. This was a great race. The RSV4 worked wonderfully and the team did an impeccable job.”
Sylvain Guintoli: “I gave 100% like I always do. I had a good pace and I didn’t make any mistakes. In the first laps I was feeling good and I probably could have attacked Marco, but I preferred to stay behind him. From the halfway point on he was really fast. He rode very well and I wasn’t able to match his times. This is a great result. We showed that the RSV4 is competitive even on a twisty circuit like this one. Now I’ll be working with the team to try and be a little faster in Race 2.”
