Portugal Grand Prix - Race 1

Sykes clinches race one win from Guintoli

07-07-2014

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Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes stormed to his seventh World Superbike win of the season at Portimao after he proved to be unstoppable out on the Portuguese track.

In the end the current champ had a 2.5-second lead over Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli, with Sykes' team-mate Loris Baz bagging the final step on the rostrum in third. Aprilia’s Marco Melandri and Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea rounded up the top five.

On the opening lap it was Rea who got the hole-shot, from Melandri and Sykes and the Northern Irishman powered on ahead. Sykes was in third till the start of lap 3 where the Englishman made a move going into the first corner on Melandri..

On lap four Rea lost out on the lead on the back straight, as both Sykes and Melandri were able to get into the slip-stream of the Pata Honda bike - with the Kawasaki man edging ahead, with the Aprilia in tow. Ducati’s Chaz Davies did not have a great start from the front row, and by lap four slipped back to sixth, after Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli made a move that stuck to push the Welshman further down the field.

The yellow flags came out on the final turn when Red Devils Roma’s Toni Elias crashed unhurt while in 14th, bringing his podium hopes to an abrupt end. Elsewhere Rea fell off the pace and Kawasaki’s Loris Baz was able to take full advantage and went into third on lap six.

On lap eight of 20 Sykes pushed on ahead to have a one second lead over Melandri. But soon Baz overtook the Italian to go into second with Rea never far behind. With the trio jostling behind it gave Huddersfield’s’ finest the chance to extend his lead at the front on the pack.

Guintoli was not giving up and battled through the pack and was neck and neck with his fellow countryman Baz – and the older of the pair stormed on ahead, allowing his team-mate Melandri to get past the Kawasaki man on lap 12.

Soon the white flags came out as rain started to slowly fall on the circuit. Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam and Davies crashed going into the hairpin at turn 5, due to the slippery conditions while the riders were in seventh and eighth overall – but fortunately both Brits were able to rejoin the race by lap 13. But Davies soon made his way to the pits.

With Haslam and Davies further down the pack it pushed Alex Lowes up to seventh. Further up the field on lap 14 Guintoli was closing in on Sykes and his advantage fell to 1.5 seconds. But the rain soon stopped and the sun came out giving Sykes the motivation to go quicker – and he did just that and with 5 laps remaining upping his lead to 2.2 seconds.

On lap 16 it was the battle of the Voltcom Suzuki team-mates – with Eugene Laverty overtaking his rookie colleague to snatch seventh from the Derby rider. The Irishman was on a roll and soon got the better of Lowes and ploughed on ahead to overtake Ducati’s Davide Giugliano to go into sixth – with only two laps remaining.

On the final lap Laverty, Lowes and Giugliano got caught up with back markers and Laverty came off worse as he fell back and Lowes and the Ducati rider took advantage of the situation. At the chequered flag it was Lowes who edged ahead to sixth, with Laverty ending the morning in eighth.

Haslam was able to get in the points to finish in a respectable 11th. Alstare’s Christian Iddon on his Bimota BB3 Evo machine finished in 13th, but he wont be awarded any points due to homologation rules. Kawasaki’s David Salom claimed a tight Evo victory from BMW Italia’s Sylvain Barrier with both riders fighting it out right to the finishing line - with Barrier completing the top ten.