Unlike today’s opening race which was shortened to 6 laps, Imola race 2 went the full 19 lap distance with the Kawasaki Racing duo once again in command, claiming their second 1-2 finish of the day with Jonathan Rea once again getting the better of Tom Sykes who finshed 2nd, 4.399s behind the current Championship leader.
For Rea it was his 8th win from 10 starts this year, and his 150th WorldSBK race.
After a second technical fault for Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team), the final podium position went to Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils), the Spanish WorldSBK rookie
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK) completed an impressive return to racing with 4th after the Italian was once again the top Italian rider.
Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) backed up his impressive race one result with a strong 5th position, with Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing) and Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven) finishing 6th and 7th.
8th and 9th positions were lonely rides for Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing) and Michel Fabrizio (Althea Racing) both collecting their second top ten finishes of the day with Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) completing the top ten.
Santiago Barragan (Grillini SBK Team), and the BMW Team Toth pairing of Imre Toth and Gabor Rizmayer were the final riders to finish, claiming 11th to 13th positions.
Sylvain Guintoli and his Pata Honda team-mate Michael van der Mark both crashed out before half distance as did Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils). A number of other retirements meant only 13 riders completed the race.
In the championship standings Jonathan 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 Leon Haslam is x points.
There may be two weeks between Imola and Donington Park, but keep checking worldsbk.com regularly for all the latest news from the eni FIM Superbike World Championship, interviews an exclusive videos.
