2013 World Superbike Results
Only one race occurred at the ninth round of the 2013 World Superbike Championship due to tragedy.
The second race was cancelled immediately following the crash in World Supersport that claimed the life of Andrea Antonelli. For a report on the crash, click here.
As for race one in World SBK, BMW Motorrad GoldBet’s Marco Melandri returned to the top of the podium following a soaking-wet race. The Italian was joined on the race-one podium by teammate Chaz Davies and Team Ducati Alstare’s Ayrton Badovini.
With his third win of the season, Melandri is now 32 points away from the new World Superbike Championship leader, Aprilia Racing’s Sylvain Guintoli. The Frenchman was able to claim the top spot from Kawasaki Racing’s Tom Sykes, who suffered technical issues aboard his Ninja ZX-10R.
Constantly changing weather conditions and several DNFs played a huge factor in Sunday’s race one, with 2013 flag-to-flag rules that came into place.
Melandri along with several other riders in the top positions, pulled in for a tire change at the end of lap 20 as the rain got heavier, making almost impossible to ride on slick compounds.
Thanks to a formidable pit-stop performed by his crew, Melandri closed the gap on the leader and teammate Davies, eventually getting on first position and pulling away to cross the line a lonely winner. Davies, on the other hand, led the race for the most part, showing great skills on both dry and mixed conditions.
Badovini brought the 1199 Panigale R to a long-awaited first podium finish, thanks to an impressive performance in the last part of the race. The former STK1000 Champion found himself at ease on soaked wet conditions, to edge out from the top-3 Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) while entering the penultimate lap.
Guintoli put in another heroic performance today by finishing sixth behind Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Aprilia), despite the dislocated right collarbone and a big moment in the first half of the race.
Sykes’ second technical problem of the weekend resulted in a no-score for the Brit, as his bike stopped and got on fire during the fourth lap. A big number of crashes took place and involved Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare), Jules Cluzel (FIXI Crescent Suzuki), Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Aprilia), Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team), Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike), Lorenzo Savadori (Team Pedercini Kawasaki) and Vittorio Iannuzzo (Grillini Dentalmatic BMW).
2013 Moscow Raceway World Superbike Race One Results:
1. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 46’03.043
2. Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 46’10.484
3. Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 46’15.797
4. Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 46’24.360
5. Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 46’50.499
6. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 47’04.042
7. Max Neukirchner (MR-Racing) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 47’07.805
8. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 47’07.990
9. Leon Camier (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 47’12.183
10. Jules Cluzel (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 46’26.550
11. Federico Sandi (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 48’04.828
RT. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 26’02.247
RT. Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 26’04.095
RT. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 4’52.190
RT. Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’37.722
RT. Lorenzo Savadori (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R
RT. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Grillini Dentalmatic SBK) BMW S1000 RR
RT. Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale R
