WSB Portimão Race Two: Disaster for Sykes as Laverty takes victory

It was a disastrous second race in Portimão for pole-sitter, Tom Sykes after he dropped his bike on the sighting lap; smashing his screen, denting his tank and requiring a brake lever change from the pit-lane before being forced to start the race from his Kawasaki KRT garage.

This effectively meant that Eugene Laverty – who had his own misfortune in race one when his bike failure forced his retirement – was starting from pole, with race one winner Melandri also left with a clear view of the track in front of him.

Even this pit-start proved unfruitful however, as Sykes – suffering from complications caused from his brake lever replacement – returned to the garage with two laps gone and then didn’t return until the leaders where already completing their seventh lap. Jonathan Rea – yet another rider who had suffered with issues, his in race one when a misplaced component had caused his engine to expire – took advantage of his enhanced grid position, with an excellent start alongside Laverty, and by lap seven it was this pair that had gained a two second lead over Melandri and Guintoli behind them. 

Marco Melandri soon fell off of the pace however, with his rear tyre degrading at an alarming rate causing him to drop down the race positions; effectively leaving the final podium places – but not the order – being decided by lap twelve.

And so, Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty took his fourth win of the season – the most by a single rider so far this year – from his teammate Sylvain Guintoli in second (extending his championship lead over Sykes to twenty-eight points) and Jonathan Rea in third.

Leon Haslam, Rea’s Pata Honda team-mate, failed to start race two, after suffering severe ‘pump’ to his right-arm during the first time out, a complication of having over-compensate for the injuries that he sustained in Assen, which he is still recovering from.