Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) wins Race 1 at Jerez.

Saturday’s racing at the Pirelli Spanish Round saw Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) register his first victory as the recently crowned 2017 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Champion, taking advantage of a late technical issue for provisional race leader Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). With his first ever win at Jerez, Rea was joined on the podium at the end of a restarted Race 1 at Round 12 by Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team).

On his way to equaling Carl Fogarty’s career podium record of 109 rostrum results in WorldSBK Rea took over at the front after Melandri pulled off with a problem with four laps to go.

Rea had taken control of the restarted race in the early stages and led for several laps before Melandri made a move with 13 laps to go at turn 9 up the inside of the Northern Irishman. Davies then followed Melandri through to overtake Rea, but Rea soon responded to retake the Welshman and slot back in behind the Italian.

As Melandri chased his second race win in 2017, since his return to WorldSBK at the start of the year, cruel luck saw him pull off towards the end of the race, leaving Rea to take the glory. Sykes produced a solid ride in third place as he continues to recover from wrist and finger injuries sustained in Portugal in September, with Davies crossing the line just under 0.5s ahead of him in second.

It was another strong performance from Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) as he collected more good points on the Yamaha YZF R1, crossing the line fourth, 3.677s ahead of his teammate Michael van der Mark who was fifth.

2014 World Champion Sylvain Guintoli’s return to action on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR saw him finish a creditable sixth, in the first of four races he will ride for the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing at the final two rounds of the season.

The top ten was rounded out by Milwaukee Aprilia duo Lorenzo Savadori and
Eugene Laverty and Spanish pair Xavi Fores (BARNI Racing Team) and Roman Ramos (Team Kawasaki Go Eleven) – in seventh to tenth places respectively.

Turn 13 proved to be unlucky for Takumi Takahashi (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) as he lost the front end of his Honda CBR1000RR, though he picked it up to finish 16^th. Takahashi’s Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team colleague Davide Giugliano was an unfortunate late retiree.

In the initial race start a turn 6 crash on the first lap involving Ayrton Badovini (Grillini Racing Team) and Raffaele de Rosa (Althea BMW Racing Team) brought out the red flags. After a short break the race was recommenced with a quick restart procedure with the riders keeping their focus in the clear conditions in Andalusia on the resurfaced Jerez track, though neither Badovini nor De Rosa made it back onto the grid.

Race 2 for the WorldSBK riders at the Pirelli Spanish Round takes place at 1pm on Sunday.

P1 – Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) 
“So, so nice to tick that box for a Jerez race win. I was trying to manage the race a little bit in the beginning because I did not get a long run in yesterday, after my big crash, so I was not sure how the tyre choice we made was going to play out. I went all in to that race. With the position we now have in the championship I went in over my head – but it was fun to ride like this.”

P2 – Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 
“It was cat and mouse between me and Tom, I could see them behind and I knew he was catching me and I tried to pull away a little bit. After missing FP2 I felt it was a really good ride, it was hard because we missed an hour of track time and I felt like I was learning as I was going. It was a a tough race and I’m really happy with the result.”

P3 – Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) 
“The pace stayed very consistent and it was quite nice at the end. Unfortunately at the beginning of the race there was a little bit of stop-start so I could not set my usual rhythm and I lost some time. In the first three laps I had a small issue with gear selection, and then missed a gear coming onto the straight. I lost some track positions but regrouped and then the pace was acceptable. We were just not able to bridge that gap to the guys in front.”

#JerezWorldSBK at Jerez: Race 1
1. Jonathan Rea Kawasaki
2. Chaz Davies Ducati +1.137
3. Tom Sykes Kawasaki +1.599

Championship Standings after Race 1, Round 12
1. Jonathan Rea (GBR) Kawasaki (481 points)
2. Tom Sykes (GBR) Kawasaki (352 points)
3. Chaz Davies (GBR) Ducati (347 points)

Credits : Photos and content courtesy of Dorna WSBK Organization Srl