Laverty clean sweeps in Turkey
The Aprilia rider took all before him to win both races and move to within 26pts of the championship lead, while home town hero Kenan Sofuoglu won a supersport thrillerIreland’s Eugene Laverty was the star of the show in the round 11 of Superbike World Championship in Istanbul, Turkey on September 15 over the weekend, winning both races on his Aprilia.
The clean sweep now has him within 26pts of championship leader Tom Sykes (Kawasaki), who scored 3-2 finishes at Istanbul Park. Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia) remains in second place, now 8ps adrift of Sykes.
“My previous double-win was at Monza in 2011, but this one has a special meaning because it was totally unexpected,” said Laverty.” I am very happy as my bike was perfect, even better in the second race – despite the similar pace- as I could make the difference in the final stages.
“I'm back into contention for the title, but most of all I regained confidence and that gives me great hope for the next rounds."
In race one, Laverty passed Sykes on lap 13 and then pulled away, while the championship leader lost some ground and was passed by Marco Melandri (BMW) three laps later. That’s how they finished, with Guintoli fourth from Davide Giugliano (Aprilia) and title newcomer Toni Elias (Red Devils Roma Aprilia), the 2010 Moto2 world champion.
A technical problem forced Australia’s Mark Aitchison (Kawasaki) out of the race.
In race two, Laverty completed the second double win of his career – the first one coming at Monza in 2011.He overtook Sykes on lap 12, while Guintoli crossed the line a lonely third from Melandri, Elias and Chaz Davies (BMW).
Aitchison was 11th.
Ayrton Badovini's absence from the grid resulted in the first-ever world superbike race with no Ducati machines on track, the second one in history with no points for the Italian manufacturer.
World Supersport
Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki) and Sam Lowes (Yamaha) put up a superb fight, giving the vocal and ecstatic Turkish crowd something to remember. In the end, after swapping positions countless times, the home hero managed to score an historical win. Lowes tried everything he could to snatch victory over the finish line, eventually finishing just 0.04 seconds behind.
Lowes is now ever-closer to his first world supersport title, as he leads the standings with 49 points to spare over Sofuoglu with just two races left in the season.
Michael van der Mark (Honda), who was up front in the early stages of the race, could not keep the pace of the front runners and finished third ahead of team mate Lorenzo Zanetti.
Roberto Rolfo (MV Agusta) did an outstanding recovery from 14th place on the grid, eventually ending up fifth, followed by Roberto Tamburini (Honda), Kev Coghlan (Kawasaki) and David Salom (Kawasaki).
Australia's Damian Cudlin (Honda) retired with a mechanical problem.
For full results and standings in both classes, visit www.worldsbk.com/en/home.html.
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