Chaz Davies moved back into second place in the World Superbike Championship standings after winning the second race of the weekend at Imola. The Welshman stormed through from ninth on the grid to defeat polesitter Tom Sykes with Jonathan Rea edging out his Kawasaki team-mate for second.
Sykes started from pole position after his fourth place finish yesterday and duly converted it into a first corner advantage while Davies fell back to eleventh. Ducati’s blushes were spared though when Ayrton Badovini’s Grillini Kawasaki detonated its engine, dropping oil on the approach to Rivazza and bringing out the red flags.
At the restart, Davies made no much mistake, climbing to third on the opening lap while Rea made a critical error, straight-lining the Variante Bassa chicane and dropping to fifth. Once Leon Camier had crashed out of second, Chaz had a clear run at Sykes and shortly before half-distance, the Yorkshireman gave in to the inevitable and surrendered the lead. Davies was untouchable from that point onwards while the recovering Rea eventually chased down Sykes, snatching second seven laps from home.
Xavi Fores produced another fine performance to claim fourth on the Barni Ducati, beating Marco Melandri on the factory Panigale. Alex Lowes won a close battle for sixth ahead of Eugene Laverty as the two avoided a repeat of their dramatic race one collision while Jordi Torres took a superb eighth from the back of the grid having missed Saturday’s running due to illness.
WorldSBK 2017: Italian Round – Race Two Result
[table id=1965 /]
