Tom Sykes wins the first SBK race in Moscow

The World Superbike Championship has held its first race at the Moscow Raceway, where we have seen plenty of crashes, excitement and overtaking in tricky conditions, with the track wet after this morning’s rain, so movement was expected and there has been plenty of it.

The race started with a very fast Tom Sykes, a spectacular start from the Kawasaki man that put him in first place, a position he would not give up until the end of the race, so absolute domination for the 66 in Moscow, he had no rival; in a single lap he already had more than a second’s advantage over his rivals, partly because Eugene Laverty and Leon Haslam were fighting at every corner for the podium positions.

Further back and from fourth place came the super pole man, Carlos Checa, who did not get off the line very well but kept within the leading group, although losing “fuel”, and at one point, within a second, Jonathan Rea overtook him in a rather tricky manoeuvre and our number 7 went down with 22 laps to go. Undoubtedly bad news, as this “0” leaves Carlos with very remote chances of renewing his Superbike crown.

While Sykes went off alone, a growing group came together to fight for the podium positions, specifically Laverty, Davies, Haslam and Giugliano, with Melandri arriving from behind and Biaggi also very close. But a series of crashes changed that group, with many incidents on the Russian track; specifically Giugliano, Davies, Rea, Guintoli and Haslam went down, although the rider from BMW rejoined and scored points in this race.

With these crashes, second place was handed to Melandri on a plate. The Italian did not have an easy race, but despite incidents and crashes he showed himself in that great position, especially considering the fight for the championship, while Biaggi, at the last moment, caught his teammate Laverty, and the 58 let the position slip away, and the Italian secured third place in Moscow.

Undoubtedly a bad race for our Checa, but a very good one for Salom. David has entered the top 10, showing his forward pace and his ability to fight with Pedercini’s Kawasaki. In short, the top 10 was Sykes 1st, Melandri 2nd, Biaggi 3rd, Laverty 4th, Fabrizio 5th, Haslam 6th, Canepa 7th, Zanetti 8th, Hopkins 9th, Salom 10th.

Shortly, the second SBK race.

Photo | WorldSBK and Kawasaki