2013 Assen World Superbike Race 2 Results: Duelling At The Cathedral

Race two at Assen was under warmer weather, causing a few tyre changes, but tyres didn't plague any of the front runners.

Tom Sykes once again made a break for the front, but he had company this time as Eugene Laverty followed him through and glued himself to the back of the Kawasaki. Davide Giugliano forced his way past Loris Baz and Jonathan Rea for a hard fought third place, but Sykes and Laverty used the opportunity to break a second and a half free from the fight for third.

On the sixth lap, Davide Giugliano crashed unharmed and watched his Aprilia tumble, spilt the fuel tank and burst into flames. As he had the decency to destroy his bike in a large gravel run-off, the racing was unaffected.

The crash gave us two braces of bikes as Tom Sykes and Eugene Laverty led Jonathan Rea and Loris Baz by two seconds, with Sylvain Guintoli and a resurgent Chaz Davies ahead of Marco Melandri and an injured Leon Camier.

As Camier lost his position to his team mate, Jules Cluzel, Melandri's BMW started acting weird, glitching in corners with what looked like a temperamental electronic issue that made him drop a few places until he was behind a tenth placed Carlos Checa who was struggling again.

Sylvain Guintoli, at this point, picked up the pace and closed the gap, settling into fourth place between Loris Baz and Jonathan Rea, while Leon Camier took seventh off Jules Cluzel. Tom Sykes and Eugene Laverty were at this point carving out a five second gap as Guintoli took third place from Baz. As Baz tried to reclaim his place from Guintoli, Cluzel's bike gave up the ghost and ended his weekend.

Loris Baz finally made a pass stick on Sylvain Guintoli and, shortly after, Jonathan Rea also passed him, forcing an overtake at the chicane while the gap to Laverty dropped to under five seconds.

With three laps to go, Eugene Laverty made a pass on Tom Sykes and tried to break free, but Sykes regrouped and placed himself in Laverty's back wheel and shadowed him until the last lap. As Loris Baz and Jonathan Rea sparred for third, five seconds ahead, Sykes set about trying to pass Laverty.

It came down to a run to the chicane, with Sykes behind Laverty, sliding the big green Kawasaki to find a way past the slim and nimble Aprilia, but Sykes got, as he put it, “a little bit excited” and he clipped the kerb, ending his drive past Laverty.

Eugene Laverty won the race by a tenth of a second ahead of Tom Sykes with Loris Baz finishing in third, a twentieth of a second ahead of Jonathan Rea. Chaz Davies was also able to make a last lap pass and pip Sylvain Guintoli by an equally close margin.

Assen didn't fail to entertain.

Results:

1. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 35'36.814
2. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 35'36.903
3. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 35'42.662
4. Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 35'42.704
5. Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 35'44.173
6. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 35'44.218
7. Leon Camier (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 35'57.909
8. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 36'04.081
9. Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 36'07.047
10. Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 36'09.215
11. Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 36'16.738
12. Max Neukirchner (MR-Racing) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 36'20.718
13. Ivan Clementi (HTM Racing) BMW S1000 RR 36'36.983
14. Federico Sandi (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 36'38.667
15. Mark Aitchison (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 36'39.478
RT. Jules Cluzel (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 24'31.112
RT. Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 8'07.727
RT. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Grillini Dentalmatic SBK) BMW S1000 RR 3'39.175