Jerez, Spain – Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing Team) took his second World Superbike double of the season on Round 10 as his team-mate Sylvain Guintoli, second in both races, narrowed the gap to series leader Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) to 31 points.
The reigning champion was fifth in the first race and third in the second but was never able to show his usual speed at this circuit.
The South African contingent fared well with Sheridan Morais (Kawasaki) finishing 13th in Race 1 and 12th in Race 2, while David ‘McFlash‘ McFadden, also on a Kawasaki, finished a hard-earned seventh in the Superstock 1000 race to consolidate his fifth position in the standings.
RACE 1
In one of the closest races of the season so far Melandri got the best of a 20 lap thriller that saw the leading group of eight riders exchanging places at almost every turn in the early stages.
Then Aprilia Factory duo took the lead off the start with Guintoli passing his Italian team-mate at Turn 3. Superpole winner Loris Baz (Kawasaki) took the lead at the end of the lap four and the two Italian compatriots began to ease away – but Guintoli was having none of it, retaking the lead on lap eight as the chasing pack, now led by Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team) closed in.
Giugliano crashed out of fourth at the start of lap 11 while Sykes also ran off the circuit at the end of the long back straight as he tried to move up from seventh.
After running as high as third in the opening laps Alex Lowes (Suzuki) crashed out of ninth, followed a lap later by Baz who went down after making contact with the back of Melandri’s Aprilia.
At the flag it was all smiles in the Aprilia camp with Melandri coming home ahead of Guintoli with Chaz Davies (Ducati Superbike Team) taking the final podium position.
Jonathan Rea (Honda) was fourth with Sykes fifth, while Sylvain Barrier (BMW) was just beaten to top spot in the Evo category, coming home 10th overall behind David Salom (Kawasaki).
RACE 2
The drama in began almost immediately as top Evo classified rider Salom crashed out on lap one while Giugliano was forced out by a technical problem a lap later.
At the front Guintoli led from Sykes, after the reigning World Champion made a much better start, but as in the earlier outing it was Melandri who slowly worked his way to the front, eventually passing Guintoli in the final third of the race to take the a double win ahead of his team-mate and Sykes who were 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Completing the top six were Davies, Rea and Eugene Laverty (Suzuki) while the best Evo rider was Sylvain Barrier (BMW) who finished 11th overall, comfortably ahead of 12th placed Morais who posted one of his best results of the year.
WORLD SUPERSPORT
Michael Van Der Mark (Honda) took the win – his fourth of the year – despite immense pressure from Jack Kennedy (Honda) and former champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki), to clinch the World title with two races still to be run.
The first half of the race gave the fans a real treat with some of the closest racing of the season before championship leader Van Der Mark edged clear, only for rain to bring out the red flags on lap 13.
The result meant the young Dutch rider had never finished lower than second all season, with the exception of his Phillip Island crash, while for Kennedy it was his first podium finish after moving into World Supersport.
Misano race winner Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta) looked like making it a four-way fight before he overshot at Turn 3 before eventually retiring.
Raffaele de Rosa rode well to bring his Honda home fourth ahead of PJ Jacobsen (Kawasaki) and Van Der Mark’s team-mate Lorenzo Zanetti.
SUPERSTOCK 1000
A reduced 10 lapper saw a tense race-long fight between three riders with the honours eventually going to Leandro Mercado (Ducati) who claimed his second win of the season and with it retook the lead in the championship by five points.
Kyle Smith (Honda) was back on the podium in second with Lorenzo Savadori (Kawasaki) completing a competitive podium in the Spanish sun.
Fourth, fifth and sixth were taken by Fabio Massei (Ducati), Ondrej Jezek (Ducati) and Josh Day (Honda), with McFadden running as high as sixth before losing out to Day on lap seven.