Source: WorldSBK.

The opening race at Imola, the Acerbis Italian Round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship resulted in victory for championship leader Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team).

The race was initially red flagged and restarted because of a crash involving David Salom (Team Pedercini Kawasaki), who fell off his factory ZX-10R at Rivazza on lap 11. After being taken to the Medical Centre, the Spaniard was diagnosed with a left radius bone fracture and a deep elbow contusion.

The pace in the restart was electric, as the Kawasaki pairing of Sykes and Rea pushed each other to the limit. A lap record on lap 2 for Rea saw him pass his team mate only for Sykes to respond with an even faster lap to pile on the pressure.

A tense final lap saw Rea cling on to claim his 22nd career win ahead of Sykes with Davide Giugliano who produced a determined ride to claim 3rd and the final podium place on his return to the WorldSBK paddock.

Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) made changes during the short delay, the British rider looked more comfortable, finishing fourth ahead of the Pata Honda machine of reigning world champion Sylvain Guintoli, who moved up from 15th on the original starting grid to fifth. Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) scored a solid ten points in sixth.

Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Ducati) was part of a six rider group that was fighting for fifth, the reigning FIM Superstock 1000cc Cup winner taking seventh ahead of Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing Ducati), Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) and Michel Fabrizio, who took a solid 10th position on his one-off ride, replacing the injured Nico Terol.

Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki), Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Santiago Barragan (Grillini SBK Team Kawasaki), Christophe Ponsson (Team Pedercini) and Imre Toth (BMW Team Toth) rounded out the point scoring finishers.

Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) was running in sixth in the early stages of the first part of race one before a mistake dropped him down the order, the Spanish WorldSBK rookie re-grouped before crashing out unhurt with 11 laps to go. He along with Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team) were unable to take part in the restart.

The second WorldSBK race went the full 19-lap distance, with the Kawasaki Racing duo claiming their second 1-2 finish of the day as Rea once again got the better of Sykes with a comfortable 4.399s lead at the line. For Rea it was the eighth win from 10 starts, which also completed his third double of the year.

After a second technical fault for Davies, the final podium position went to Torres, who claimed his career’s first rostrum finish as he crossed the line third ahead of Italians Giugliano, Badovini and Baiocco. Ramos, Mercado, Fabrizio and Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) completed the top 10.

Guintoli and his Pata Honda teammate van der Mark both crashed out before half distance as did Haslam. A number of other retirements meant only 13 riders completed the race.

In the championship standings Rea heads to his home round at Donington Park with a stretched points advantage after his double race win, the gap to his nearest rival Haslam is 87 points.

The 17-lap World Supersport race was won by Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) after another intriguing duel between the Turkish rider and one of his closest rivals Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse).

The pair smashed the lap record repeatedly as they pulled away from the chasing pack with Sofuoglu eventually taking the win, the 30th of his WSS career and the third in a row in 2015, to extend his championship lead after Cluzel made the smallest mistake at Variante Bassa on the final tour to miss out on the victory by 0.883s.

Last year’s race winner Lorenzo Zanetti (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) was unable to live with the pace of the front two, having to be content with third after the Italian overhauled PJ Jacobsen and Marco Faccani (San Carlo Puccetti Racing) who were fourth and fifth respectively.

On debut with Kawasaki Intermoto Aiden Wagner snuck into the points with a 14th-place finish, taking advantage of a late mechanical for countryman Glenn Scott on the AARK Racing Honda.

Lorenzo Savadori (Nuova M2 Racing Aprilia) claimed his second win of the season by coming out on top at the end of the 14-lap FIM Superstock 1000 Cup race, from fellow Italian Roberto Tamburini (MotoxRacing BMW) and Ondrej Jezek. Australian Bryan Staring was a non-finisher for Pedercini Kawasaki.

2015 Superbike World Championship
Round five – Imola, Italy

Superbike race one results:
1. Jonathan Rea
2. Tom Sykes
3. Davide Giugliano
4. Leon Haslam
5. Sylvain Guintoli
6. Ayrton Badovini
7. Leandro Mercado
8. Matteo Baiocco
9. Michael van der Mark
10. Michel Fabrizio

Superbike race two results:
1. Jonathan Rea
2. Tom Sykes
3. Jordi Torres
4. Davide Giugliano
5. Ayrton Badovini
6. Matteo Baiocco
7. Roman Ramos
8. Leandro Mercado
9. Michel Fabrizio
10. Alex Lowes

Superbike championship standings:
1. Jonathan Rea 240
2. Leon Haslam 153
3. Tom Sykes 128
4. Chaz Davies 123
5. Jordi Torres 99
6. Sylvain Guintoli 76
7. Michael van der Mark 67
8. Matteo Baiocco 66
9. Tati Mercado 62
10. Alex Lowes 51

Supersport race results:
1. Kenan Sofuoglu
2. Jules Cluzel
3. Lorenzo Zanetti
4. PJ Jacobsen
5. Marco Faccani
6. Ratthapark Wilairot
7. Gino Rea
8. Riccardo Russo
9. Martin Cardenas
10. Roberto Rolfo
14. Aiden Wagner (AUS)

Supersport championship standings:
1. Kenan Sofuoglu 105
2. PJ Jacobsen 68
3. Jules Cluzel 65
4. Lorenzo Zanetti 57
5. Ratthapark Wilairot 46
6. Kyle Smith 46
7. Gino Rea 46
8. Roberto Rolfo 41
9. Alex Baldolini 33
10. Marco Faccani 32
20. Aiden Wagner (AUS) 5
21. Glenn Scott (AUS) 4

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