2016 Aragon World Superbike Results, Race 1 | Recap

2016 Aragon World SBK Results, Race 1

Perfect racing conditions welcomed the 25-rider World Superbike grid Saturday for race one of round three at Motorland Aragon in Spain.

All eyes were on the Kawasaki Racing Team duo of Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes; heading into Aragon, Rea had three wins – a double at the Phillip Island SBK season opener and race one in Thailand SBK, and Sykes had the remaining win, race two in Thailand SBK.

The 2013 World Superbike Champion Sykes led one of three free practices, and Ducati Team’s Chaz Davies led the other two. But Sykes regained control of the Motorland Aragon Circuit during Superpole, earning the 32d pole of his World Superbike career. Joining him on the front row for qualifying were the Pata Yamaha pilots Sylvain Guintoli and Alex Lowes, respectively. As for the reigning World SBK Champion Rea, the Northern Irishman qualified fifth behind Davies.

Things looked promising for Sykes for the opening three of 18 laps, but with 15 to go the Brit was passed by Davies. From there, Davies led all the way to the finishing line, earning his first win of 2016 World Superbike, and his fourth at Aragon (two in 2013 with BMW; one in 2015 with Ducati).

And it was pure domination; the Welshman finished Aragon SBK Race one aboard his Ducati 1199R 4.168 seconds ahead of Rea. Sykes earned the final podium, 4.984 of a second behind.

Following Aragon Superbike, Chaz Davies said: “In the beginning it wasn’t easy to fight in the group, but I gradually managed to climb back through the field and take the lead. Then, I simply tried to establish my own rhythm, progressively building a gap.

“I’m very happy, we’ve made a clear step forward in terms of power, for which I want to thank Ducati for the constant efforts to push development forward. We’ve been close to winning a few times already this year, and now we need to stay on this course. We can still improve before Race Two tomorrow.”

When Aragon WSBK began, Sykes led from pole, followed by Guintoli and Rea. As Sykes And Guintoli opened a gap, the Ducati Team riders of Davies and Davide Giugliano began battling with Rea for third. Davies soon got the best of all, and began chasing down Sykes, passing him with 15 to go.

As Davies opened a gap, the Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja pilots slotted in behind. Giugliano had some issues staying up front; the Italian fell back, eventually finishing fifth behind Barni Racing Team Ducati’s Xavier Fores.

Finishing sixth was the only American rider in World Superbike, Honda World SBK’s NickY Hayden, who was followed to the checkered flag by Althea BMW’s Jordi Torres in seventh and Yamaha’s Lowes, who was outside the top 10 when the race began.

Rounding out the top 10 were Guintoli and IodaRacing Team Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori.

Two notable riders that suffered DNFs were MV Agusta’s Leon Camier, who had technical issues aboard the F4RR, and Hayden’s teammate and World Supersport Champion Michael van der Mark, who crashed out with 15 laps remaining.

The grid returns to Aragon Sunday for race two at 1 p.m. local time. Ahead of Race 2, Rea has 115 points, 33 ahead of Sykes and 35 ahead of Davies.

2016 Aragon World SBK Results, Race 1:

#	Rider	Num	Nat.	Points	Team	Constructor	Time/Gap
1	Chaz Davies	7	GBR	25	Aruba.it Racing	Ducati	33’31.464
2	Jonathan Rea	65	GBR	20	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki	+4.168
3	Tom Sykes	66	GBR	16	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki	+4.948
4	Xavi Fores	12	SPA	13	BARNI Racing Team	Ducati	+12.723
5	Davide Giugliano	34	ITA	11	Aruba.it Racing	Ducati	+13.151
6	Nicky Hayden	69	USA	10	Honda WorldSBK	Honda	+21.117
7	Jordi Torres	81	SPA	9	Althea BMW Racing Team	BMW	+22.112
8	Alex Lowes	22	GBR	8	Pata Yamaha	Yamaha	+25.575
9	Sylvain Guintoli	50	FRA	7	Pata Yamaha	Yamaha	+28.941
10	Lorenzo Savadori	32	ITA	6	IodaRacing Team	Aprilia	+34.956
11	Alex De Angelis	15	RSM	5	IodaRacing Team	Aprilia	+35.075
12	Román Ramos	40	SPA	4	Team Go Eleven	Kawasaki	+37.310
13	Joshua Brookes	25	AUS	3	Milwaukee BMW	BMW	+37.442
14	Markus Reiterberger	21	GER	2	Althea BMW Racing Team	BMW	+37.731
15	Karel Abraham	17	CZE	1	Milwaukee BMW	BMW	+52.270
16	Sylvain Barrier	11	QAT	0	Team Pedercini	Kawasaki	+56.295
17	Matthieu Lussiana	94	FRA	0	Team ASPI	BMW	+1’07.602
18	Dominic Schmitter	9	SWI	0	Grillini Racing Team	Kawasaki	+1’35.691
19	Peter Sebestyen	56	HUN	0	Team Toth	Yamaha	+1’35.746
20	Imre Toth	10	HUN	0	Team Toth	Yamaha	+1 Lap
NC	Saeed Al Sulaiti	11	QAT	0	Team Pedercini	Kawasaki	DNF
NC	Matteo Baiocco	15	ITA	0	Althea Racing	Ducati	DNF
NC	Joshua Hook	16	AUS	0	Grillini Racing Team	Kawasaki	DNF
NC	Leon Camier	2	GBR	0	MV Agusta Reparto Corse	MV Agusta	DNF
NC	Michael van der Mark	60	NDL	0	Honda WorldSBK	Honda	DNF

2016 Aragon World Superbike Results, Race 1 Photo Gallery