Magny Cours WSB: Guintoli splashes to race one win

Sylvain Guintoli cut the gap to championship leader Tom Sykes to just 19 points with victory at a wet Magny Cours today.

Both Sykes and Guintoli benefited from team orders, with their team-mates letting them through.

With the rain coming down it was Jonathan Rea who got the best start, and opened up a gap on the chasing pack before Guintoli moved into second and chased the Pata Honda down to move into the lead on lap two.

Marco Melandri took his time to get upto speed in the tricky conditions, but slowly picked his way through the field to move into second place on lap six.

It took Melandri eight laps to close the gap to his team-mate and move into the lead, before conceding to Guintoli on lap 17.

Rea was unable to keep pace with the leading Aprilias, finishing in a distant third place.

Sykes finished in fourth after a tough race which saw him run off track several times. Loris Baz left it late to let Sykes through under team orders, not allowing the Huddersfield rider through until the final corner.

The race saw several DNFs, with Ducati rider Chaz Davies crashing out on only the second lap, joined a lap later by Toni Elias at the same corner.

Suzuki’s Eugene Laverty crashed on lap three but was able to rejoin the race and finish nineteenth.

Davide Giugliano crashed out on lap five and was looking at his fourth DNF in a row, but the Italian was abe to rejoin the race and made his way back up to seventh. Alex Lowes retire on lap three.

1. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Aprilia Racing RSV4 19 laps
2. Marco Melandri ITA Aprilia Racing RSV4 +2.257s
3. Jonathan Rea GBR PATA Honda CBR1000RR +5.954s
4. Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R +15.670s
5. Loris Baz FRA Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R +16.149s
6. Leon Haslam GBR PATA Honda CBR1000RR +29.411s
7. Davide Giugliano ITA Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R +57.319s
8. Lorenzo Lanzi ITA 3C Ducati 1199 Panigale R +59.306s
9. Max Neukirchner GER 3C Ducati 1199 Panigale R +1m 12.774s
10. Sylvain Barrier FRA BMW Italia S1000RR +1m 22.931s (E)
11. Niccolo Canepa ITA Althea Ducati 1199 Panigale R +1m 39.670s (E)
12. Jeremy Guarnoni FRA MRS Kawasaki ZX-10R +1m 42.886s (E)
13. Claudio Corti ITA MV Agusta RC F4RR +2m 03.253s
14. Bryan Staring AUS IRON BRAIN Kawasaki ZX-10R +1 lap (E)
15. Fabien Foret FRA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +1 lap (E)

16. Nicolas Salchaud FRA Dream Team MV Agusta RC F4RR +1 lap
17. Sheridan Morais RSA IRON BRAIN Kawasaki ZX-10R +2 laps (E)
18. Geoff May USA Team Hero EBR 1190RX +2 laps
19. Eugene Laverty IRL Voltcom Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 +2 laps
20. Imre Toth HUN Team Toth BMW S1000RR +3 laps (E)