2014 Portimao World Superbike Results

2014 Portimao World Superbike Results from Portugal

Spoiler Alert: 2014 World Superbike results from Portimao, Portugal, listed below

Held under a mix of weather conditions, round eight of the 2014 World Superbike Championship brought victory to two different riders.

With rain threatening race one, Kawasaki Racing Team’s Tom Sykes emerged victorious. This was the Brit’s 21st WSBK-career victory. He is now tied with the now retired Max Biaggi, who won two titles for Aprilia (2010, 2012).

Joining Sykes on the race-one podium was Aprilia Racing Team’s Sylvain Guintoli and Kawasaki Racing’s Loris Baz.

The second race was held under wet conditions, creating tricky conditions for the riders. But Pata Honda World Superbike’s Jonathan Rea had the optimal setup, and went on to take the victory of the shortened, 18-lap race – his fourth of 2014.

Rea was joined on the podium by the Ducati Superbike Team duo of Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies, respectively.

With his win, Sykes extended his lead as he looks to retain the World SBK title. He now has 284 points, and is 43 points ahead of Guintoli. In third, 48 points back is Baz, who is just one point ahead of Rea.

“I enjoy winning races and the good thing is that the Ninja ZX-10R is giving me the feedback to be able to do this so I am very happy at the moment. I had a poor start in race one and it is a long race round here, long enough race to make some corrections. I am happy because we had a good gap then the rain started to come,” Sykes says.

“When you are leading the championship and leading the race you do not want to do anything stupid and it was very difficult to calculate the levels of grip because in some parts of the circuit it was raining more heavily than in others. The team gave me great pit board signals and luckily the cloud disappeared with a good amount of laps left, to go so I could take an advantage again.

“In the wet conditions of race two we had some issues but I cannot be disappointed because we have shown great potential. Sometimes we are dealt these strange races and there was too much for me to lose today. Some other riders made mistakes and so I extended my championship lead compared to when we arrived here.”
Following are race recaps:

2014 Portimao World Superbike Race 1 Recap

Sykes emerge victorious at a cloudy and overcast Portimao. Rea took the holeshot, leading the opening-three laps

At the start it was Rea that took the holeshot, leading for the opening three laps before Sykes and Melandri overtook him into turn one at the start of lap four.

By half distance the constant swapping of positions had allowed reigning champion Sykes to stretch his lead to 3 seconds, before seconds later the white flag was waved to indicate that rain was beginning to fall.

Behind the leader five riders that included Baz, Davies, Guintoli, and Pata Honda World Superbike’s Leon Haslam, who slowly began to close the gap, giving the fans a six rider group battling for the podium places.

Haslam took out Davies after losing the front end of his Pata Honda, both riders able to remount with Davies later retiring. Haslam eventually finished 11th.

At the front Guintoli had elevated himself to second and began to quickly reduce the gap to Sykes before he responded to retain a lead of 2 seconds until the flag.

Guintoli made his return to the podium in second ahead of compatriot Baz with Melandri 4th.

Rea faded to a lonely 5th ahead of Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) who passed Giugliano and his team mate Eugene Laverty on the final lap to finish 6th.

Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia) and David Salom (Kawasaki Racing Team) were never more than 0.1s apart for the entire race with Salom eventually coming out on top by 0.014 of a second on the line to claim the EVO honors.

Toni Elias (Red Devils Roma Aprilia) crashed out after improving from his lowly grid position while Fabien Foret (Mahi Racing Team India Kawasaki), Geoff May (Team Hero EBR), both Grillini Kawasaki riders Bryan Staring and Sheridan Morais, Peter Sebestyen (Team Toth BMW) and Chaz Davies all retired.

2014 Portimao World Superbike Race 2 Recap

The second race of the day at Portimao was held in tricky conditions as the rain which began during the Supersport race continued to fall at the Portuguese circuit.

Rea romped home after a reduced race distance of 18 laps as the winner after Guintoli and his teammate Melandri collided at turn five in the closing stages. Guintoli was able to remount eventually finishing 7th.

Behind Rea, Giugliano was a lonely second with Davies snatching the final podium spot from Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) and Haslam after an enthralling final few laps in which 3rd position changed several times.

Baz finished sixth.

Race one winner Sykes finished race two a lowly 8th after dropping back through the pack. He was passed on the penultimate lap by the recovering Guintoli who salvaged 7th at the flag.

In the EVO battle the honors in race 2 went to Barrier, the Frenchman finishing 11th overall.

The series now breaks for a few days ahead of this coming weekend’s round at Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway, which will occur with AMA Pro Road Racing.

2014 Portimao World Superbike Race 1 Results:

2014 Portimao World Superbike Race 2 Results:

2014 World Superbike Point Standings: