Jonathan Rea brought Tom Sykes’ nine-race winning streak at Donington Park to an end in a tense battle on Sunday. The pair started at the bottom of the top ten but Rea’s aggression through traffic in the early stages ultimately made the difference as he held off a fast-closing Sykes for his eighth win of 2017, Kawasaki’s 100th as a WorldSBK manufacturer.
By virtue of his race one victory, Sykes lined up ninth for race two, one spot ahead of his team-mate but while the Yorkshireman completed the first lap exactly where he had started, Rea had sliced his way through to second while another decisive overtake on Leandro Mercado saw him lead out of Redgate on lap two.
A collision between Mercado and Leon Haslam at Goddards aided Sykes’ progress, while also delaying Chaz Davies, but by the time he had finally passed Michael van der Mark for second on lap seven, Tom was four seconds in arrears. What followed was a gripping time attack between the two Kawasaki team-mates as Sykes relentlessly chased Rea down, setting a succession of fastest laps.
In the end, the no.66 ran out of laps with Rea holding on to win by 1.6 seconds, securing a much-cherished home victory for the Ulsterman. Van der Mark looked on course to hand Yamaha their second consecutive rostrum but Davies made sensational progress after falling to eleventh in the Mercado-Haslam collision, snatching third with a lap to spare.
Alex Lowes backed up his Saturday podium with fifth on Sunday while Leon Camier matched his race one result, taking sixth for MV Agusta. Xavi Fores was seventh ahead of Roman Ramos while British wildcard Jake Dixon took advantage of a high attrition rate to finish a superb ninth, Mercado and polesitter Marco Melandri having dropped out ahead of him.
WorldSBK 2017: UK Round – Race Two Result
[table id=2043 /]