Aprilia reigns supreme in season opener at Philip Island

24 Feb,Sunday–Australia:  The first race of the World Superbike 2013 season witnessed great action with the Aprilias on top in both races. 

  
Race 1 – Sylvain Guintolli heads all Aprillia Podium

Aprilia gets 1–2–3 at Phillip Island World Superbike Race 1. It´s the second time that the manufacturer from Noale monopolise the podium (first one was at Nurburgring last year) with works rider Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) taking his 4th win of the career in his first race onboard the RSV4, ahead of team mate Eugene Laverty.


The race started with Eugene Laverty moving off well from second position, trying to run away from his opponents. The Irishman was able to keep the gap between himself and the rest of the field until he was caught up by Guintoli, who overtook Laverty on lap 15 and led the race until the chequered flag.


Later in the race Laverty had to deal with a confident Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma Aprilia), who closed the gap and had a shot at 2nd place. Laverty waited until the last lap to make the perfect move on the Italian at ´Lukey Heights´. Right outside of top–3 is Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team) who battled hard with fellow Englishman Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) up to the finish line, to end up ahead of his rival for just 0.051 seconds, with team mate Loris Baz to follow.


After a competitive first part of the race, Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) struggled a bit to keep the pace and eventually finished 7th ahead of team mate Jonathan Rea. Two potential contenders for the podium positions got out of the race during lap 13, as Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare), accidentally hit Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team) from behind after outbraking himself, while entering Turn 4.

Race 2 – Eugene Laverty beats Aprilia team mate Guintolli for victory 


A formidable last part of the race allowed Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) to get the better of team mate Sylvain Guintoli and Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team) to win race 2 at Phillip Island. Thanks to this successful effort in the first Round, Laverty is now the eni FIM Superbike World Championship leader, tied up in points with Race 1 winner Guintoli.

The 26 year old from Toomebridge, Northern Ireland, started his final charge on the lead on lap 20 by overtaking Melandri at Turn 4 and setting an incredible 1´31.168 (new lap record). Laverty then got past Guintoli on the straight and held onto 1st place up to the chequered flag.

Melandri was part of the battle for top–3 positions but couldn´t counter attack his former team mate´s move on lap 20. After bad luck in Race 1, the Ravenna–born rider ended up the first round on a positive note. Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma Aprilia), after a long catch up with the front runners, made a small mistake and ran wide during the last lap, in a desperate attempt to overtake fellow Italian Melandri for 3rd position.

Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team), far from the ideal fitness condition, finished 5th ahead of Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Aprilia), Jules Cluzel (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) and Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike).

Following riders Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) and Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) lost a lot of ground on lap 1 after running out wide at MG Corner, following a collision between Welshman Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team) and Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team). Davies was able to get the bike upright and to make it to the pits for a tyre change, but was later penalised with a ride–through by Race Direction for not observing the 2013 pit–stop regulation.

Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) did not take part to Race 2 to undergo some medical checks at Melbourne, following the nasty–looking crash of the previous race.

– SBK Official Report