Making progress through race weekend, despite encountering some changeable track conditions, Rea built up to an eventual second place in the opening race, having scored second spot in Superpole. He chased eventual winner Chaz Davies all the way to the flag after he took second place on lap three, but could not find enough traction near the end to mount a final challenge for victory. Rea was less than two seconds down on the win at the flag.
Sykes, who had set a new pole record for the Lausitzring earlier in the day as he captured his 42nd career Superpole win, led the first lap of race one. After first Davies and then Jonathan passed him, Tom could not regain a winning position and he finished 3.25 seconds from first place. His pole win was the 70th for Kawasaki in WorldSBK history and was taken on Tom’s 32nd birthday.
After more heavy overnight rain, the track took some time to get back to the grip level of the early sessions today, but when it did it allowed the leading three to move well ahead of the chasing riders at the flag, with Sykes 13 seconds up on the fourth placed rider.
In the championship standings, with one more Lausitzring race to go tomorrow, Sunday 20th, Rea now has 361 points and Sykes 298 – with the official Ninja ZX-10RR duo still 1-2 in the rankings. Davies’s win takes him to a total of 251 points, in third place.
Jonathan Rea, stated: “In the beginning and middle parts of the race I felt I had the pace to be with Chaz. Following him, I did not know exactly where I was going to be strong enough to make a pass to make my own race. I just tried to say stay there as long as I could and hope that the gap would open up behind. Then I started suffering with the right hand side of my rear tyre. I was starting to struggle to make the lap times and through some of the right-handers I felt on ice a little bit. I just had to manage my own race, and the guys gave me incredible pit-board signals. When Chaz was eking out a gap there was nothing I could do to win. So I put all my effort into keeping a solid rhythm and preserving the tyre for the last laps. Until we all put our heads together and look at the data we will not really know if we chose the correct rear tyre option today. It has been such a tough weekend because of the conditions, and all the rain we have had. But the pace today was still much faster, on a green track, than last year’s race, or even my race simulation during the test here in the summer break. Hopefully it will not rain again so much tonight.”
Tom Sykes, stated: “I got a strong start and the lap times were good but our main rival had something extra compared to all the practice, so we just missed out. Whether it was a tyre choice, as we went for the softer option, but the only thing I was struggling with in the race is that I was not able to get of the corners as strongly as I wanted to. We will have to look at this for tomorrow but overall I am just disappointed not to convert the pole position into a win today. But Chaz and Jonathan were riding strongly and compared to last year the lap times were much faster. In Superpole the bike itself was working really nice, really consistent and it did pretty much what I wanted it to.”
2017 KRT Rider Statistics
Jonathan Rea: World Champion 2015 and 2016
2017: Races 17, Wins 9, Podiums 16, Superpoles 3
Career Race Wins: 47 (32 for Kawasaki)
Career Podiums: 104 (61 For Kawasaki)
Career Poles: 11 (7 For Kawasaki)
Tom Sykes: World Champion 2013
2017: Races: 17, Wins 2, Podiums 14, Superpoles 4
Career Race Wins: 33 (33 for Kawasaki)
Career Podiums: 98 (97 For Kawasaki)
Career Poles: 42 (42 For Kawasaki)
Kawasaki FIM Superbike World Championship Statistics
4 x Riders’ Championships (Scott Russell 1993, Sykes 2013, Rea 2015 & 2016), 1 x EVO Riders’ Championship (David Salom 2014)
2 x Manufacturers’ Championships (Ninja ZX-10R 2015 & 2016)
2 x Teams’ Championships (KRT/Provec Racing 2015 & 2016)
Kawasaki FIM Superbike World Championship Statistics
Total Kawasaki Race Wins: 102 – third overall
Total Kawasaki Podiums: 338 – third overall
Total Kawasaki Poles: 70 – second overall