Eugene Laverty closed out the 2013 World Superbike season with a dominant double victory after seeing off newly crowned champion Tom Sykes in race two. The Irishman moves level with Sykes on nine wins for the year but as far as the championship was concerned it had all come too little, too late.
As in race one, the final corner proved a popular piece of race track for Laverty who dived past Sykes to take the lead eight laps from home and there was no stopping him from there. Despite missing out on the ultimate prize, Eugene was pleased to end the year on such a high.
“Those were two very different wins today. The second one was definitely easier because I was able to create a gap in front of Tom after overtaking, whereas in Race 1 the battle took place all within a few metres. I’m quite pleased with this double win. It’s a result that confirms our potential along with the string of podiums at the end of the season. It’s a shame we lost some important points at the beginning of the year, but I don’t like to whinge or make excuses. In any case finishing second in the rider championship with more wins than the rest is an excellent result and so is the Manufacturer Title for Aprilia.”
Sykes was happy to settle for second, accepting that Laverty was too strong for him but that didn’t take away from a day the Yorkshireman will never forget.
“In race two it was my intention to do well, even though it would be difficult to top race one as all my energy had kind of gone after the first one. I hoped to be closer to the front but I did not expect to win. I think this was just Eugene’s race, although my Ninja ZX-10R was working very well. All things considered I have to be very happy today. World Champion, podium in the races and it has been an absolute pleasure to race with these guys this year. It was good for the championship that it got decided at the final round again, especially at this beautiful circuit, with these great fans. My team is mostly Spanish so it is a home round for them. The championship win has not fully sunk in yet but it will do soon, I’m sure.”
Sylvain Guintoli remained consistent to the end, securing yet another podium finish in third ahead of Toni Elias and Chaz Davies on the leading GoldBet BMW but the Welshman’s regular teammate Marco Melandri sat out the final race of the year with an ankle injury with any hopes of third place in the championship having disappeared in race one.
| 2013 eni Superbike World Championship – Final Standings | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Team | Wins | Pts |
| C | ▶ Tom Sykes | Kawasaki ZX-10R | Kawasaki Racing Team | 9 | 447 |
| 2 | ▶ Eugene Laverty | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | Aprilia Racing Team | 9 | 424 |
| 3 | ▶ Sylvain Guintoli | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | Aprilia Racing Team | 1 | 402 |
| 4 | ▶ Marco Melandri | BMW S1000RR | BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK | 3 | 359 |
| 5 | ▶ Chaz Davies | BMW S1000RR | BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK | 3 | 290 |
| 6 | ▶ Davide Giugliano | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | Althea Racing | 211 | |
| 7 | ▶ Michel Fabrizio | Honda CBR1000RR | PATA Honda World Superbike | 188 | |
| 8 | ▶ Loris Baz | Kawasaki ZX-10R | Kawasaki Racing Team | 1 | 180 |
| 9 | ▶ Jonathan Rea | Honda CBR1000RR | PATA Honda World Superbike | 1 | 176 |
| 10 | ▶ Jules Cluzel | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | FIXI Crescent Suzuki | 175 | |
| 11 | ▲ Leon Camier | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | FIXI Crescent Suzuki | 132 | |
| 12 | ▼ Ayrton Badovini | Ducati 1199 Panigale R | Team Ducati Alstare | 130 | |
| 13 | ▶ Leon Haslam | Honda CBR1000RR | PATA Honda World Superbike | 91 | |
| 14 | ▶ Max Neukirchner | Ducati 1199 Panigale R | MR-Racing | 91 | |
| 15 | ▶ Carlos Checa | Ducati 1199 Panigale R | Team Ducati Alstare | 80 | |
| 16 | ▲ Toni Elias | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | Red Devils Roma | 70 | |
| 17 | ▼ Federico Sandi | Kawasaki ZX-10R | Pedercini Team | 55 | |
| 18 | ▶ Mark Aitchison | Kawasaki ZX-10R | Pedercini Team | 46 | |
| 19 | ▶ Vittorio Iannuzzo | BMW S1000RR | Grillini Dentalmatic SBK | 27 | |
| 20 | ▲ Lorenzo Lanzi | Ducati 1098R | Mesaroli Transports A.S. | 23 | |
| 21 | ▼ David Salom | Kawasaki ZX-10R | Kawasaki Racing Team | 22 | |
| 22 | ▼ Ivan Clementi | BMW S1000RR | HTM Racing | 18 | |
| 23 | ▼ Vincent Philippe | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | FIXI Crescent Suzuki | 13 | |
| 24 | ▶ Niccolo Canepa | Ducati 1199 Panigale R | Team Ducati Alstare | 12 | |
| 25 | ▶ Fabrizio Lai | Kawasaki ZX-10R | Pedercini Team | 11 | |
| 26 | ▶ Michele Pirro | Ducati 1199 Panigale R | Team Ducati Alstare | 10 | |
| 27 | ▶ Alexander Lundh | Kawasaki ZX-10R | Pedercini Team | 10 | |
| 28 | ▶ Roger Lee Hayden | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | Michael Jordan Motorsports | 8 | |
| 29 | ▶ Blake Young | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | FIXI Crescent Suzuki | 8 | |
| 30 | ▲ Javier Fores | Ducati 1199 Panigale R | Team Ducati Alstare | 7 | |
| 31 | ▲ Sylvain Barrier | BMW S1000RR | BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK | 7 | |
| 32 | ▼ Markus Reiterberger | BMW S1000RR | Vanzon-Remeha-BMW | 7 | |
| 33 | ▼ Glenn Allerton | BMW S1000RR | Next Gen Motorsports | 6 | |
| 34 | ▼ Tolga Uprak | Kawasaki ZX-10R | CMS-Eypbike Racing Team | 5 | |
| 35 | ▲ Broc Parkes | Yamaha YZF-R1 | Monster Energy Yamaha – Yart | 4 | |
| 36 | ▼ Matej Smrz | Yamaha YZF-R1 | Yamaha Motor Deutschland | 4 | |
| 37 | ▼ Jamie Stauffer | Honda CBR1000RR | Team Honda Racing | 4 | |
| 38 | ▼ Yunus Ercelik | BMW S1000RR | Sampiyon 169 Team | 3 | |
| 39 | ▼ Danny Eslick | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | Michael Jordan Motorsports | 2 | |
| 40 | ▼ Kosuke Akiyoshi | Honda CBR1000RR | PATA Honda World Superbike | 2 | |
| 41 | ▼ Noriyuki Haga | BMW S1000RR | Grillini Dentalmatic SBK | 2 | |
