Jonathan Rea restored his superiority at Kawasaki with an eleventh victory of 2015 as Tom Sykes struggled in race two at Misano. The championship leader chased down Davide Giugliano to move another step closer to his first world title while a lack of grip left Sykes in a disappointing fifth.
After grabbing the holeshot for the second time today, all looked to be going to plan for Sykes but it quickly became apparent that the race one winner didn’t have the same pace on this occasion. The Yorkshireman was unable to make the same break early on with Giugliano and Rea swarming all over him and on lap seven, Giugliano scythed up the inside of the no.66 at turn three to snatch the lead.
Rea didn’t waste any time following the Ducati through into second but an error at turn one left him back in third once again. The Ulsterman had to wait until the tenth lap to finally see off his teammate with a late-braking manoeuvre into Quercia but once he had second place sewn up, the signs were looking ominous for Giugliano.
The Italian bravely held on until six laps from the finish when Rea eased past on the back straight towards turn eleven and although Davide did keep pace with the Kawasaki in the latter stages, he was powerless to stop Rea clinching yet another victory. Giugliano took second, matching his career-best, while Leon Haslam came through in the second half of the race to take the third spot on the podium.
Chaz Davies was fourth on the second Aruba.it Ducati with Sykes slipping to fifth, just ahead of the Aprilias of Max Biaggi and Jordi Torres. Ducati substitute Michele Pirro completed a fine weekend in eighth while PATA Honda pair Sylvain Guintoli and Michael van der Mark matched their race one results in ninth and tenth respectively.
