World SBK at Portimao

Superbike:  Race 2: Aprilia takes a two podium places

After a tense battle in the second race at Portimao, Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) took his first victory of the 2012 season, and his first on an Aprilia machine, as he held off the impressive late charge of Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) by only 0.162 seconds.

Eugene became the ninth rider in 2012 to win a race. Laverty had been a clear leader but in the final laps Rea put in a real charge at the undulating Portuguese circuit. Over three seconds behind the race winner, Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) was third and now carries a more than useful lead into the final round in France.

His new main championship rival Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) was forced out with an engine problem in the early laps of race two and no-scored. Max now has 347 points to Sykes' 316.5. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) missed the second race after suffering a badly bruised kidney in his first race crash.

Full wet conditions arrived on Sunday morning at Portimao and they were to play a part in the race being halted because of an oil spill after a crash. A restarted race, over only 16 laps, was won by Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) who scored his third win of the 2012 season and drew himself closer to championship leader Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) as a result. Max was fourth in the opening race after several incidents and changing fortunes as the race unfolded.

Carlos Checa (Althea Racing Ducati) looked like he could pass Sykes but was unable to in the final two laps, and settled for second place, while PATA Racing Ducati privateer rider Sylvain Guintoli scored himself another podium finish, in third.

A collision on lap one of the first start saw Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) crash after an attempted pass on Biaggi and he was taken to hospital for scans on a bruised kidney, missing out on the re-start as a result.

Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Lorenzini) won his third world championship by finishing behind the only man who could have caught him in the championship fight before the Portimao round, Jules Cluzel (PTR Honda).

Cluzel gave his all to keep the title alive for another weekend but with so many changes of lead and position inside the top four riders today, nothing was certain until the very last corner when he had stretched out a winning lead.

Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Intermoto Step) was third in the race, just less than a second from Cluzel. Broc Parkes (Ten Kate Racing Products Honda) was fourth and Sam Lowes (Bogdanka PTR Honda) fifth.

In the rankings, with one round to go, Sofuoglu has a peerless 218 points, Cluzel 185 and Foret 16