Australian round

Last weekend, the first WorldSBK match was played at the Phillip Island circuit. With a training session on Friday, the pilots had three 40-minute sessions to shoot with their motorcycles. Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea were placed in fourth and fifth positions respectively getting the direct pass to the Superpole.

On Saturday, the first race took place, in which Sykes took second place, close to getting the victory in a race where he led 18 of the 22 laps played. The Englishman came out from pole position, getting his 43rd Superpole and equaling the Australian Troy Corser as the best classified player in the history of WordlSBK.

Rea fought for the first positions during the first laps but because of a blister on his rear tire that made him slow down the race pace, he could not keep fighting and finished in fifth place.

In the second race that was played on Sunday and declared "flag to flag" as a safety measure to ensure that it was played in 22 laps, the drivers were forced to make a pit stop to change their rear tire in a minimum time of 63 seconds with three laps of margin.

With this handicap, Rea came out from the first position due to fifth place on Saturday and managed to climb the second box of the podium, behind Marco Melandri, who failed to beat in straight due to the limitation of revolutions that have this year the Kawasaki with the new regulations. Sykes fought for the first positions but due to a drop in the performance of his bike he finished in fourth position. At the end of the race Tom said he was happy with the result but somewhat disappointed because he felt he could achieve victory this weekend.

After this first meeting, our drivers are in second and third place respectively in the championship, Tom with 33 points and Jonathan with 31, with Marco Melandri in the lead with 50 points. The next meeting will take place at the circuit of Buriram (Thailand), between March 23 and 25.