WSBK : Double Turkish delight for Eugene Laverty at Istanbul

Eugene Laverty is the ’sultan’ of the Intercity Istanbul Park circuit. The Aprilia rider after his victory in race 1, repeating himself in race 2 in the inaugural World Superbike championship in Turkey.

Race 2 seemed a copy of race 1 with Tom Sykes on the holeshot and trying to get away but this time trailing him was Sylvain Guintoli while the other Aprilia factory rider fell back to fifth.

However Laverty wanted another podium as he picked off the riders in front of him and then relentlessly hunted down Sykes and passing with just five laps remaining in the race. Once past the Kawasaki rider, Laverty just slipped away and raced to the finish line uncontested for the victory - his sixth of the 2013 season.

 

Despite being on the top of the timesheets, Sylvain Guintoli managed to take home a third place podium, but he was expecting much more as he is now eight points behind Sykes in the standings.

Marco Melandri was fourth. The BMW rider lost a inordinately amount of time battling with his former MotoGP and Gresini team mate Toni Elias, who would outbrake the Italian every time until Melandri changed his tatics and managed to get past him, but it was too late to chase after the leaders of the race. Elias had a fantastic World Superbike debut taking a fifth place and fighting off Chaz Davies on the final lap for the position.

Jules Cluzel and Leon Haslam would also battle throughout the race for seventh place, with the position going going to the Suzuki rider, while Davide Giugliano and Michel Fabrizio completed the top ten.

For the first time in 26 years there were only 15 riders on the starting grid as Ayrton Badovini sat out race two, his injured ankle bothering him too much. Mark Aitchison took 11th ahead of Federico Sandi, Vittorio Iannuzzo, while Tolga Urpak and Yunus Ercelik went to points again.

2013 WSBK Istanbul Race 2 results:

01- Eugene Laverty – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – 18 laps in 34’58.775
02- Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 1.708
03- Sylvain Guintoli – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 4.052
04- Marco Melandri – BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team – BMW S1000RR – + 10.860
05- Toni Elias – Red Devils Roma – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 12.171
06- Chaz Davies – BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team – BMW S1000RR – + 12.396
07- Jules Cluzel – FIXI Crescent Suzuki – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 17.434
08- Leon Haslam – Pata Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 17.683
09- Davide Giugliano – Althea Racing – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 25.770
10- Michel Fabrizio – Pata Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 38.735

via TWOWHEELSBLOG