Eugene Laverty takes dominant victory in race 2 at Portimao, Sykes suffers title heartbreak

with Twowheelsblog

If race 1 at Portimao was dramatic with Marco Melandri crashing out and having to skip race 2, the second race was just as eventful, as race one winner Tom Sykes was able to reduce his points gap to rival Max Biaggi to just 14.5 points but was forced to retire on lap 3 after his Kawasaki ZX-10R started to blow blue-white smoke from the bike’s exhaust pipe whileEugene Laverty took his first victory for Aprilia.

From the lights to the chequered flag, Laverty literally ran away with the race, almost never contested, until Jonathan Rea was able to slowly close the initial three second gap that the Aprilia rider had and try to apply some pressure on the last lap, but by then the race was already over. Max Biaggi desperately wanted a podium in race 2 after finishing fourth in the previous one, but he almost didn’t make it after an aggressive Leon Camier in a failed pass at turn 14 of lap 18 touched the Aprilia’s rear tire - Camier would then retire on the penultimate lap with some technical issue to the dismay of Jack Valentine.

Sylvain Guintoli took fourth in a race that saw a high rate of attrition, not only did Sykes retire, but Chaz Davies also crashed out while he was running in second trying to catch Laverty. Technical issues removed Davide Giugliano, Matteo Baicco and Hiroshi Aoyama from the contest. Carlos Checa took fifth after an error on the first lap had dropped to him to 9th. Ayrton Badovini was sixth followed by Loris Baz and Michel Fabrizio who was able to fend off an impressive Brett McCormick.

Lorenzo Lanzi in his fourth race with Effenbert Liberty was 10th, followed by John Hopkins, Lorenzo Zanetti, Davide Salom, Alexander Lundh and Norino Brignola.

Max Biaggi now leads the championship with 30.5 points over Tom Sykes and 38.5 over Marco Melandri, with just 100 points left to assign in the final round of the season at Magny Cours.

WSBK Portimao Race 2 Results:

1. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 38′35.105
2. Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) Honda CBR1000RR 38′35.267
3. Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 38′38.871
4. Sylvain Guintoli (PATA Racing Team) Ducati 1098R 38′45.545
5. Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) Ducati 1098R 38′55.258
6. Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) BMW S1000 RR 38′58.257
7. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 39′02.419
8. Michel Fabrizio (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) BMW S1000 RR 39′10.787
9. Brett McCormick (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 39′10.871
10. Lorenzo Lanzi (Liberty Racing Team Effenbert) Ducati 1098R 39′13.416