WSB Aragon Race 1: Davies scorches to victory after Laverty and Sykes DNFs

Welshman Chaz Davies scorched to his debut BMW win in the first WSB race at Motorland aragon after DNFs handed him the lead early on.

Eugene Laverty lead off the line, with Davies passing Tom Sykes on the second lap to take second. However, Laverty was cursed with electrical problems, sitting up then retiring on lap four with electrical problems. Shockingly, he was followed on lap five by Sykes, who had just passed Davies to retake the lead.

With Laverty and Sykes gone, Davies was left almost a second gap from Guintoli. A big slide from Guintoli on lap 7 allowed Davies to break the Feenchman’s tow and pull out the gap to over two seconds.

Jonathan Rea rallied from a poor qualifying spot to move up to fourth by half distance, but was continually losing out on the straights due to the speed of the Honda. He was caught by Giugliano and Cluzel, and Giugliano managed to make it past the Northern Irishman.

By lap 12 Marco Melandri had closed in on second place man Guintoli. Melandri made it through on lap 13 before clearing off to try and catch Davies, who had pulled a 5 second lead.

On lap 16 a mistake from Melandri saw him run on at turn twelve, putting him back to 5th and leaving him to fight with Giugliano and Rea for the final podium spot.

The much superior speed of Melandri’s BMW saw him easily dispatch Rea and Giugliano on the long straights to move back to third by lap 18.

However, the excitement didn’t end there, as Giugliano’s Ducati spluttered out of fuel on the last lap, giving Rea fourth.

Leon Haslam, on the Pata Honda, was the last of the British finishers in a distant ninth.

Laverty restarted the race on lap 16, finishing 15th with Giugliano’s DNF, although the official results have not credited him with the place.

Davies said after the race “Australia ws nothing to write home about, finishing fourth, but it felt like a bit of a win to me, so early on in the season. We’ve been working hard getting used to the bike since then, and it’s starting to feel like like it’s mine now – the team have done fantastic job catering the bike to my needs.”

Aragon – FIM Superbike World Championship – Race 1

1. Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 39’50.332
2. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 39’55.548
3. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 39’57.421
4. Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 39’58.528
5. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 40’04.749
6. Jules Cluzel (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 40’08.664
7. Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 40’14.638
8. Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 40’16.216 
9. Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 40’26.053
10. Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 40’34.461
11. Max Neukirchner (MR-Racing) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 40’41.756
12. Federico Sandi (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 40’59.549
13. Ivan Clementi (HTM Racing) BMW S1000 RR 41’04.423
14. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Grillini Dentalmatic SBK) BMW S1000 RR 41’38.660
NC. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 40’08.280
RT. Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 37’57.840
RT. Alexander Lundh (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 22’31.831
RT. Mark Aitchison (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 13’07.647
RT. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 10’02.121