Source: Supplied.

Kawasaki Racing Team’s Tom Sykes took a brilliant win in World Superbike race one at Donington Park in a dramatic race which brought crashes for Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).

Wildcard Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) made it an all-British podium, as Sykes took an amazing ninth-successive victory in his home race at Donington Park.

An incident-packed race saw provisional leader Davies go down in the early stages at turn 12, after he lost the front end. He picked his Ducati up to rejoin, eventually finishing eighth having crashed at the same corner as he did in last year’s opener at Donington and this latest incident will be a big blow to his world title aspirations.

With six laps to go Sykes got through on his teammate Rea to lead and within just over a lap he had opened up a two-second gap on his Northern Irish teammate. Rea then suffered a high-speed accident at turn three due to a rear tyre failure, crashing out of the race.

A superb ride by Haslam on his return to the series saw him take a highly creditable second place, whilst Lowes took third thanks to a late move on Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). Dutchman Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) completed the top five, with Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) making it four Brits in the top six to further delight the home crowd.

In seventh place Leandro Mercado (IODARacing) crossed the line a couple of seconds ahead of Davies, with Spaniards Jordi Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Xavi Fores (BARNI Racing Team) completing the top 10.

The riders and many of the fans in attendance carried stickers and flags in tribute to the late Nicky Hayden who tragically passed away earlier in the week after a cycling accident in Italy, with Sykes quick to pay his condolences to the Hayden family after the race in parc ferme. The podium finishers all wore t-shirts carrying Hayden’s famous number 69 in honour of the Kentucky Kid.

Stefan Bradl (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) and Riccardo Russo (Guandalini Racing) unfortunately suffered technical issues and ended up with DNFs.

It was WorldSSP champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) who secured pole position for the sixth race of the season with a 1m30.904s lap to lead Frenchmen Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team) and Jules Cluzel (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda).

Leading Australian was Anthony West (EAB West Racing Yamaha) in P16, while Lachlan Epis (Response RE Racing Kawasaki) lines up 27th and Giuseppe Scarcella (Team Lorini Honda) 32nd.

In WorldSSP300 Alfonso Coppola (SK Racing) secured pole position from Borja Sanchez (Halcourier Racing) and Mika Perez (WILSport Racedays).

And in the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup class, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team) took pole position, while teammate Mike Jones was first of the Aussies in 17th, one place ahead of Glenn Scott (Agro On-Benjan Kawasaki).