Sykes new Championship leader after Race 2 win at Imola

Monday 01 July: Autodromo Enzo & Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy.

Race 2: Sykes new Championship leader after Race 2

Tom Sykes

Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) completed a fantastic double-win at Imola, his second in 2013, to become the new Championship leader. The Hudderfield-born rider has led every single lap of Race 2 to cross the line as the winner for the 10th time in his WSBK career and, thanks to his 5th first place finish of the year, to equal the number of individual wins he was able to achieve in the last two seasons combined. After the disappointment of the first race, Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) redeemed himself to end up a lonely second ahead of works Aprilia rider Sylvain Guintoli.

Fourth place Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet) edged his team mate Chaz Davies for fourth place at the very last lap, while Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) won the battle for sixth ahead of Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki). Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Aprilia) managed to pulled away in the end for from a still recuperating Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) and fellow Italian Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) for 8th.

Today's second race saw two potential protagonists out of contention in the early stages, as Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Aprilia) crashed at Turn 7 during the second lap, while trying to keep Sykes' pace, and Eugene Laverty fell off his bike at Turn 18, on lap number six.

Race 1: Tom Sykes dominates

SBK

Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) dominated Race 1 at Imola to score his 9th career win, the 4th this year. Today's pole-sitter managed to pull away from 2nd place Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Aprilia) halfway through the race, keeping a strong pace that only the young Italian was able to match, in the first part.

Sykes had a controlled approach in the early laps, making his way up from 4th to the lead, then started making the difference as the race progressed. Giugliano did all he could to stay with the winner, eventually finishing a lonely second, that means his first podium since 2012 Race 1 at Misano.

Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) achieved a solid 3rd place ahead Marco Melandri (BWM Motorrad GoldBet), as the home rider lapped really close to his former team mate, but couldn't get in contention for the podium. The two riders saw a recovering Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) getting in the mix until the Ulsterman crashed out of Turn 19, during the nineteenth lap, not long after he moved up to 4th place. Rea got the hole-shot at the start, before running wide at Turn 6 and rejoining in 11th position.

Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Aprilia) finished 5th after a good battle with Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet) and Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki). The Championship standings situation is now tighter than ever on top, following Sykes' win and the unlucky withdrawal of Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team), due to a technical problem on Lap 6: the Frenchman keeps the lead, but Sykes is now just 3 points behind.

SuperSport: Sofuoglu wins, Lowes recovers to 2nd

Kenan Sofuoglu

Kenan Sofuoglu (Mahi Racing Team India Kawasaki) is back on the top step of the podium following a superb performance in the World Supersport race at Imola. The defending Champion led the entire, that was shortened to 14 laps after the technical problem occurred to Valentin Debise (Prorace Honda) and the oil left on track by hisCBR 600RR, that brought to a Red Flag situation.

2nd place Sam Lowes (Yakhnich Motorsport Yamaha) did an outstanding recovery, following a difficult start, to finish ahead of team mate Vladimir Leonov thanks to a successful last-turn overtake. The Russian rider was able to keep the pace of the winner in the early part of the race, showing a renewed confidence after a tough first half of the season. Pata Honda riders Lorenzo Zanetti and Michael van der Mark finished 4th and 5th respectively, while Luca Scassa (Intermoto Ponyexpres Kawasaki) won a spectacular fight for sixth position over Andrea Antonelli (Goeleven Kawasaki).

An incredible battle saw Scassa's team mate Florian Marino edging out six hungry rivals, to a final 8th place. Fabien Foret found himself in the mix after running wide at Turn 11, during lap 12, eventually finishing twelfth.

Superstock 1000: Barrier wins STK1000 race

Superstock 1000

Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad GoldBet) has won his third race of the season today at Imola. The defending Champion took the lead on Lap 4 and began to dictate the pace, as he tried to pull away from the chasing pack, to eventually cross the finish line 2.7 seconds ahead of Niccolò Canepa (Barni Racing Ducati).

The two riders put up a good battle in the early laps to form a hungry trio with Canepa's team mate Eddi La Marra, who looked the only one able to stay with the winner, until he crashed at Turn 12 on the ninth lap. A solid performance by Ondrej Jezek (SK Energy - Fany Gastro Ducati) resulted in his second career STK1000 podium finish for the Czech rider, who hadn't been climbing on the rostrum since 2009 home race at Brno.

Thanks to his 8th win in the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup, Barrier extends his lead in the standings to 12 points on Canepa and 25 over Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Kawasaki), sixth at the flag behind Team Pedercini Kawasaki duo of Lorenzo Savadori and Leandro Mercado.

Superstock 600: Nocco gets home victory

Alessandro Nocco

Alessandro Nocco (San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki) got a well deserved maiden win in the Superstock 600 European Championship today at Imola. The 16 year old from Gagliano del Capo managed to get in the lead in the closing stages of race, that was reduced to 7-laps following the crash by Czech rider Tomas Vavrous (Montaze Broz Racing Kawasaki), that led to a red flag and a subsequent restart.

Once in first place, Nocco took advantage of the battle behind between team mate Franco Morbidelli and Christian Gamarino (Goeleven Kawasaki). The battle resulted in a successful overtaking manoeuvre by Morbidelli at the last chicane before the chequered flag, though he had no time left to challenge for the win. Thanks to the second place achieved today, Morbidelli moves up to 2nd place and close his gap to 10 points on the Championship lead, still held by Gauthier Duwelz (MTM-MVR Racing Yamaha), who was 9th at the flag behind Swiss Bastien Chesaux (EAB Ten Kate Junior Honda).

Lorenzetti wins Cup of Nations race

Cup of Nations

Tommaso Lorenzetti (Nuova FCC Corse Yamaha) scored a last-lap victory in today's Cup of Nations race at Imola. The experienced rider from Foligno took advantage of a mistake at the final turn made by fellow Italian Mitja Emili (Tecnicamoto Honda), to take the lead and cross the line in first place. The duo put up a thrilling battle during the closing stages with Andrea Manici (Eros Motor Racing Yamaha), who eventually got a 20-second penalisation by the Race Direction for cutting the last chicane that moved him down to fourth place.

Gennaro Romano (Bike Center Yamaha), completed the podium despite a 15-second gap from the lead at the chequered flag. The second race of 2013 Cup of Nations will take place at Moscow Raceway on July 21st.

Pata European Junior Cup: Raymond on top of the podium

Guillaume Raymond

A hard battled 4th race in the calendar for the Pata European Junior Cup, powered by Honda at Imola saw a thrilling victory of Frenchman Guillaume Raymond (Activbike), after the scheduled 9 laps.

Hungarian Richard Bodis (Sparta Motorsport) and Spanish Illan Fernandez (Evo Kids Racing) finished 2nd and 3rd, while Italian Kevin Manfredi (Newton Trasformatori) missed the top-3 after his crash at the "Variante Bassa" at the very end of the race, that led to other two falls just before the finish line.

Thanks to today's win, Raymond moves up on top of the standings in the one-make series, with the first three riders within only 3 points of each other.