Marco Melandri wins the second race of SBK in Moscow

Rider Marco Melandri has taken victory in the second race of the World Superbike Championship at the Moscow Circuit, in another action-packed race, with crashes, daring overtakes and plenty of excitement at the front.

The start was very good for Tom Sykes, the Briton shot off the grid like a rocket and managed to take the first position, from where he began to pull away as in the first race, opening a gap on a large group of rivals chasing him.

This group allowed Sykes to pull away, but this time it was not going to be the same as in the first race, because Marco Melandri set a brutal, beastly pace, reeling in the distance and overtaking all his rivals until he reached Sykes, passing him at that moment and pulling away very strongly. Meanwhile, behind, Sykes was caught by the group, which fought fiercely for the podium positions, especially between Rea, Laverty, Sykes and Checa.

But throughout all this battle we had several key incidents. The first was Max Biaggi’s strike. I still can’t explain the manoeuvre, but it ended with the Italian taking out Leon Haslam; both were out of the race, and the 91 was taken to the medical centre. Hiroshi Aoyama also went to the doctors after his crash with McFadden.

Despite these crashes, Melandri kept leading, while behind him the group put on a show, until the last lap, when Marco was heading straight for victory and the remaining places were up for grabs. Suddenly Rea and Laverty touched and went down, causing Carlos Checa to run off track. The Catalan had to leave the track to avoid taking out Rea or Laverty, as they had fallen right in front of him, which allowed Chaz Davies to slip past him when rejoining the track, leaving Checa to settle for 4th place.

The final top 10 of this second race was Melandri 1st, Sykes 2nd, Davies 3rd, Checa 4th, Camier 5th, Giugliano 6th, Rea 7th, Badovini 8th, Baz 9th, Zanetti 10th. David Salom finished 13th, so a very good day for the Mallorcan in Moscow.

Melandri now leads with 308.5 points, Biaggi has 290 points, Sykes 267.5 points and Checa 233.5 points.

Photo | WorldSBK