Melandri makes history for BMW

Italian Marco Melandri nailed BMW’s first ever World Superbike victory during a highly entertaining – and brutal -- day’s racing in round five of the championship at Donington overnight.

And not only did Melandri win race one, he also led home teammate Leon Haslam to give BMW’s its first 1-2 in WSBK – and just when the team was on track for a similar result in race two it all came unstuck on the last turn after some argy-bargy which eventually saw Honda rider Jonathan Rea come out trumps to win his second race for the year.

Italian Max Biaggi (Aprilia) remains the championship leader, by 5pts over Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes, with Rea sneaking his way into third ahead of world champion Carlos Checa (Ducati) and Melandri.

In race one, an eventual five-way fight for the podium places ensued, but Melandri’s cracking pace in the last few laps proved to be the difference as he ran out a 0.729-second winner over Haslam, who himself had slipped past polesitter Sykes late in the piece.

A fast-finishing Rea gobbled up Biaggi on the last lap to finish fourth, but this race was all about BMW as it became the eighth manufacturer to win a WSBK race, joining the four Japanese marques, Ducati, Aprilia and Bimota on the honour board.

“It is an awesome feeling for me to put my name in the history books of a factory like BMW Motorrad,” said Melandri. “I could not have dreamt of this when I was young. I just want to say thank you to BMW Motorrad in Germany, to the team at the track and to everybody involved in the project.

“I am disappointed with the result of the second race. I was trying to pass Leon in the final corner, although I knew it would be difficult but I am a racer and I had to try. I ran a little wide and expected Leon to pass me back – finishing second would have been okay for me.

“Then Leon was hit and he crashed. His bike hit me and I crashed too. I feel sorry for both of us but that’s racing. We now have to keep our heads up high and look forward to Salt Lake City where we hope to be fighting for wins again.”

Race two was an incident-strewn one from the start, with Checa and Eugene Laverty (Aprilia) touching on turn one. Checa – sixth in race one -- then went down, taking out his teammate Davide Giugliano and Jakub Smrz (Ducati) in the collateral damage.  Laverty then crashed out soon after himself.

Out front, Sykes led for the majority of the race before it became a five-way warring faction yet again, with a healthy dose of overtaking and some over-exuberance a part of the mix.

Then it all came down to the final corner, with Haslam looking the goods until he ran wide and Rea pushed inside. They collided and Haslam fell, taking out Melandri.

Rea won by half a second from Biaggi – his 10th WSBK victory -- with Sykes third from Leon Camier (Suzuki) and Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati). Haslam remounted to finish 15th and salvage one championship point. Haslam is sixth in the overall standings.

Australia’s Mark Atchison (BMW) retired from race one just a few laps from the finish, but took maximum advantage of the mass attrition in race two to finish 14th.

Richards’ fellow South Aussie and teammate Billy McConnell was ninth. Melbourne’s Jed Metcher (Yamaha) was 13th.

Sam Lowes (Honda) won his first World Supersport race and also became the fifth winner in as many rounds this year by beating home Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki) in a thriller. Frenchman Jules Cluzel (Honda) saw out the podium.

Sofouglu now has 81pts, from Lowes (76), Cluzel (64), Fabien Foret (Kawasaki, 64) and Parkes (55).

Fastest lap: Biaggi – 1:28.992

Race two: 23 laps
1 Rea 34:31.847
2 Biaggi +0.508
3 Sykes +2.029
4 Camier +4.245
5 Guintoli +6.595
6 Ayrton Badovini, Italy, BMW +17.469
7 Chaz Davies, Great Britain, Aprilia +17.788
8 Loris Baz, France, Kawasaki +21.093
9 Peter Hickman, Great Britain, Suzuki +21.806
10 Hiroshi Aoyama, Japan, Honda +22.620
14 Aitchison +56.618

Fastest lap: Biaggi – 1:29.995

Next round: Miller Motorsport Park, America, May 26-28