2017 Lausitzring World Superbike Results: Germany SBK Recap

2017 Lausitzring World Superbike Results

When the World Superbike Championship returned to Germany’s Lausitzring last season—the first time WSBK held a race there since 2007—the battle was between Ducati and Kawasaki.

Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s Chaz Davies claimed the race-one win at 2016 German SBK, and Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jonathan Rea race two.

These two were favorites heading into round nine of 2017 World SBK at Lausitzring, but focus quickly turned to 2013 WorldSBK Champion Tom Sykes; the Kawasaki ZX-10RR pilot led all free practices and claimed pole.

But Sykes couldn’t match the performance of last year’s winners, and settled for third in race one, and fourth in race two. Rea was strong, but couldn’t match the pace of the Welschman Davies, who completed a double victory in Germany.

Rea would finish runner-up in both races. Taking the final podium position in race one was Sykes. Davies’ teammate Marco Melandri, who last week extended his WSBK contract with Kawasaki Racing Team through 2018, earned the final podium position in race two.

With his double runner-up finishes, Rea remains the points leader with 381 points as he chases his third-straight title with Kawasaki Racing Team. In second, 70 points behind is Sykes, who is followed by Davies with 276 and Melandri with 218.

The 2017 WorldSBK continues September 15-17 at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, Portimão, Portugal.

Following are the official recaps of German SBK, round 9 of 13.

2017 Lausitzring World Superbike Results, Race 1 Recap

Repeating his Race 1 victory from Lausitzring last year Davies controlled the race well after starting in sixth on the grid, taking the lead on the second lap. He was too strong for Rea and Sykes despites their best efforts to chase him down.

Sykes had set a new pole record earlier in the day but could not match Davies’ race pace and crossed the line in third place, 3.25s down on the Ducati-equipped race winner.

The Saturday contest at Round 9 in Germany saw Melandricross the line in fourth place, 16 seconds down on his teammate Davies, with Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) getting a creditable fifth place as he finished half a second behind Melandri.

Official WorldSBK Video Highlights

Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) put pressure on Camier for fifth but just missed out by 0.186s as the highest finisher on the YZF R1.

Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia) was the best finisher on the Aprilia RSV4 RF in seventh, whilst Xavi Fores (BARNI Racing Team), Jordi Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) rounded out the top ten.

On his WorldSBK return wildcard Markus Reiterberger (Van Zon Remeha BMW) was running in a solid eighth place for much of the race before he ran into the gravel at turn 10 and dropped down the order to eventually finish 13th.

Earlier Leandro Mercado (IODARacing) had suffered a midrace off track excursion and he ended up 11th. There were several high profile crashers and retirees including Italian quartet Riccardo Russo (Pedercini Racing SC-Project), Raffaele de Rosa (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Davide Giugliano (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team).

Stefan Bradl (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) was forced to sit out due to pain in his left elbow, after crashing on Friday and having a further medical check following Superpole on Saturday morning. His condition is to be evaluated again on Sunday morning before Warm Up.

2017 Lausitzring World Superbike Results, Race 2 Recap

With light rain falling during the final laps the WorldSBK riders had to focus hard in order to avoid any mistakes and Davies did just that to register a third victory in four races at Lausitzring. Coming from the back of the third row on the grid the Welshman ultimately beat Rea across the line by 2.29s, with Melandri just over two further seconds back having held the lead early in the race.

Despite setting pole on Saturday Sykes could not stay with the front three on this occasion and finished in fourth place having started Race 2 in seventh on the grid.

The results saw World Champion and standings leader Rea open up a 70-point gap over his teammate Sykes in the standings with four rounds to go.

Loes just beat Camier to fifth by 0.237s, with five Britons finishing in the top six.

Just behind them on the finish line was Savadori as the top Aprilia-equipped rider, just trailing Camier by 0.115s in that tight group also involving Lowes.

Torres, German wildcard Reiterberger and Fores completed the top ten. A brave ride by Bradl saw him finish 13th, after he missed Race 1 due to severe elbow pain from a crash on Friday.

Randy Krummenacher (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), Laverty and Pawel Szkopek (Pazera Racing) all crashed out, with Russo also suffering a DNF as a late retiree.

2017 Lausitzring World Superbike Results: Race 1

2017 Lausitzring World Superbike Results: Race 2

To be posted soon…