Rea extends lead, Biaggi sixth

Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea has stretched his already commanding lead in the 2015 world superbike title to an almost unbeatable 133pts over teammate Tom Sykes after finishing with 2-1 finishes in round eight at Misano on June 21. Five rounds remain in the championship, which equates to a maximum of 250pts.

“Obviously we have to start to think about the championship now but I wanted to win today," said Rea. "In race two Davide Giugliano was a good marker to understand my pace and then with a few laps left I made a move to pass. We made a great race and I think at the end we are using our rear tyres better than some others.

"We changed our rear tyre choice from race one and that was always the plan, as the morning was a bit cooler. Kawasaki has given us a bike to win and they proved that today with Tom winning race one and me winning race two. I am so grateful to be in this position.”
Sykes was the dominant winner in race one before finishing fifth in the second, while Chad Davies (Ducati) was second in race one, the same position that his teammate Davide Giugliano filled in race two. Davies' third place brought up Ducati's 800th podium in world superbike racing.

Leon Haslam (Aprilia) was third in race two, while the returning Max Biaggi (Aprilia) logged a pair of sixth place finishes, with another appearance slated for Sepang in Malaysia on August 2.

“I'm happy with this weekend. Everything went well and we didn't make any mistakes," said Biaggi. "Race two went better than the first. I finished about five seconds behind the winner, which is really not much at all.

"I am still unable to take full advantage of the tyres straight away, whereas from mid-race I felt fast but struggling to overtake I lost a few tenths every lap. This type of return is definitely not easy, but it was a great weekend, tackled with a different spirit than the full-timers. Now I'm hoping for the cherry on the top: Sepang. This round was sort of a test, next time we'll do well.”

The world supersport race was won in style by Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta), who converted pole position into his third win of 2015 and the 10th of his career. The Frenchman smashed the lap record by over half a second on his way to a 1.525s victory over PJ Jacobsen (Honda), with Lorenzo Zanetti (MV Agusta) in third.

Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki) finished 11th after crashing out of third place on the final lap. Australia's Glenn Scott (Honda) was 15th.

In Superstock 1000, Australia's Bryan Staring (Kawasaki) was ninth, while his countryman and new teammate Aiden Wagner failed to finish.