2013 Assen World Superbike Race 1 Results: Sweeping Passes Abound

By Jared Earle | Sun, 28/04/2013 - 11:00

The weather decided not to turn nasty, allowing us to enjoy another flowing race at Assen. In the warm-up lap, Marco Melandri's BMW had gearbox issues that meant he had to get off and push. He didn't start the race. Chaz Davies, to add to BMW's woes, destroyed his bike in the morning's warm-up and it was being rebuilt until the last possible minute, starting the warm-up lap from the pits. Leon Camier stated that he may only manage a few laps as his injured knee was causing him issues.

As the lights went out, Jonathan Rea got the hole shot on the Honda, taking the lead by the first turn, but Tom Sykes took the lead at the second turn and set about hot-lapping the Kawasaki. Jonathan Rea had the Aprilia trio of Davide Giugliano, Eugene Laverty and Sylvain Guintoli breathing down his neck as he tried to catch Sykes.

Three laps in, Sykes was making a break, while Laverty picked off Giugliano for third. A lap later, as Guintoli followed his team mate past Giugliano, Chaz Davies pushed his rebuilt BMW into eight place, past a struggling Carlos Checa. Leon Camier, from last on the grid, should have been pulling in to rest his knee at this point, but decided he'd rather fight to tenth place.

As Sykes started metronomically ticking off the laps, like one of his many Tissots, the battle for second settled down to Rea, Laverty and Guintoli. While Sykes had a five second lead from the fracas, Laverty and Guintoli forced their way past Rea's slower Honda.

The race was clearly going to be a victory for Tom Sykes at this point, and he did indeed master his lead and manage it to the flag to win by over eight seconds, but the battle for second place would take a lot longer to settle. Rea was able to squeezer past the Aprilias in the fast flowing sections while the Aprilias could take him back in the faster parts.

On the last lap, Sylvain Guintoli stole second place from Jonathan Rea, but in the last section, Rea was able to find a pass from nowhere and he led to the chicane, but Guintoli's bike was able to run him to the line. Rea managed to hold him off to secure second place, but only by inches.

Tom Sykes won a dominant race ahead of a solid fight that was won by Jonathan Rea ahead of Sylvain Guintoli and Eugene Laverty.

Results:

 

Position Rider Team Bike Time
1 Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 35'35.042
2 Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 35'43.828
3 Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 35'43.834
4 Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 35'44.267
5 Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 35'49.273
6 Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 35'51.192
7 Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 35'57.612
8 Jules Cluzel (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 35'59.793
9 Leon Camier (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 36'05.353
10 Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 36'10.319
11 Max Neukirchner (MR-Racing) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 36'19.397
12 Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 36'27.622
13 Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 36'34.778
14 Ivan Clementi (HTM Racing) BMW S1000 RR 36'37.052
15 Mark Aitchison (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 36'56.903
16 Federico Sandi (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 37'00.759
17 Vittorio Iannuzzo (Grillini Dentalmatic SBK) BMW S1000 RR 37'17.752
RT Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR  
2013
3
World Superbikes
Assen, The Netherlands
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Comments

Had feared an Aprilia walk over this season after Philip Island so it is a huge relief to see at least one not on the podium.

Wow...what a battle for second.
Great come back from Davies.
A thriller right through the field, from the warm up lap to the chequered flag.

@ blackbike
Cheers! Thanks, mate. That's exactly where I've been watching the races so far, too. Wasn't uploaded yet yesterday. But now it is. Hope Dorna's not going to go about SBK, as they've done it with MotoGP. If yes, we probably won't find the races on youtube for much longer.
@ Basketcase
As for the Eurosport channel. I think that's only British Eurosport. So at least in Germany, there's no coverage. And apart from that, that's only live coverage. No On-Demand-Service, as far as I can tell.

Dice between Rea and Guintoli was very good, and earlier stalking of Laverty by Guinters was also good to watch. Have BMW run over some black cats??? At least we don't have to watch Melandri's girlfriend every 3 laps these days........

Every time an over take took place, as in the split second after it happened the TV director would switch to the pit crews to see the expressions on their faces. Meanwhile you miss out on seeing whether the pass had actually been successful or the other rider had fought back. It was extremely frustrating.

Other than that it was great racing!