Chaz Davies brought Kawasaki’s undefeated start to the 2016 World Superbike season to an end with a dominant victory in race one at Motorland Aragon. The Welshman improved his already-impressive Aragon record, winning by a distance, with Jonathan Rea pipping teammate and title rival Tom Sykes to second in another close finish between the two.
Superpole on Saturday morning followed the form book with Sykes taking a comfortable pole position but the PATA Yamahas sprung a surprise to lock out the two remaining front row spots. Rea and Davies were languishing on row two but the Aruba Ducati rider made rapid progress up the order, passing the world champion for third on lap two before giving chase after the leading pair, Sykes and Sylvain Guintoli.
Guintoli’s resistance was broken on lap four and the loss of second place would trigger a dramatic fall down the order as the Frenchman’s YZF-R1 began to lose pace. Sykes was expected to provide a much tougher fight for Chaz given his defence of the lead in Thailand but the Panigale breezed through at the final corner of the fourth lap before disappearing into the distance.
Shortly after half distance, a recovering Rea dived up the inside of Sykes to snatch second and despite pressure in the closing stages, the Ulsterman would hang on to extend his championship lead. Xavi Fores rode a superb race to take fourth, defeating Davide Giugliano to do so, while Nicky Hayden was sixth on a bittersweet afternoon for Honda who lost Michael van der Mark to a crash.
Jordi Torres was seventh for Althea BMW while Alex Lowes recovered from a disastrous start to finish eighth, passing his struggling teammate in the closing stages.
WorldSBK 2016: Pirelli Aragon Round – Race One Result
[table id=907 /]
