Malaysian Grand Prix - Race 2

Melandri does the double in Malaysia

08-06-2014

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Aprilia’s Marco Melandri took another tight World Superbike victory, to do the double at Sepang. It was a case of déjà-vu for the Italian as once again he had to fend off attacks from team-mate Sylvain Guintoli.

The battle went to the bitter end with Melandri again having the slight edge at the last turn on the final lap, to take home maximum points for his team. Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes retains his overall lead in the championship after finishing race two in third place.

Initially on the opening lap it was Red Devils Roma’s Toni Elias who got the hole-shot followed by Guintoli and Sykes. On turn 3 the Frenchman tried a move on Elias but went wide allowing the Spaniard to go on ahead, but soon the Leicestershire-based Aprilia rider went into the lead. On the second rotation Ducati’s Chaz Davies overtook Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea to go into seventh after a slow start.

On lap two Melandri went into third after a move on Sykes on turn 9. But the current champ’s team-mate, Loris Baz also had sights on fourth and was edging ever closer to his Kawasaki colleague by the third lap.

Meanwhile the battle in the Evo class was hotting up in the Malaysian heat. BMW Italia’s stand-in rider Leon Camier was leading the charge from Althea Racing’s Niccolo Canepa, but as soon as things were getting interesting Yakhnich’s Claudio Corti had an engine blow-out tipping oil onto the track at turn 15 – and the red flags immediately appeared out on the track. As only four laps were completed there had to be a complete re-start.

For the third time today the riders found themselves on the starting grid, but this time for a ten-lap race. For the fresh re-start it was Elias who took the lead at the first turn from Guintoli and Melandri.

On the second lap Melandri made a mistake which took Guintoli wide, letting the Kawasaki pairing of Sykes and Baz to go ahead. The current champ went up to second but soon Guintoli had the pace to go on ahead to lead the charge.

With seven laps remaining Guintoli had a one-second lead over Sykes and the Aprilia man pulled away from the Yorkshire man. But Sykes had another Aprilia to contend with – and that was the diminutive figure of Melandri and tried to get in the slip-stream of Sykes on turn 15, but to no avail. But the Italian had another chance on turn 1 on the halfway point and went into second.

Further down the track there was an intense battle for seventh between the Ducati duo of Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies, and Voltcom Suzuki’s Eugene Laverty. The Irishman who made it on to the podium in the opening race, was down in eighth by lap six, and is still nursing a foot injury from a crash during MotoGP Suzuki testing at Phillip Island a few days ago.

Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea was a second ahead of the Davies, Laverty, and Giugliano sandwich and was catching up with Elias for fifth with four laps remaining. Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes is still battered and bruised following an earlier incident in the first race – where the Derby-based lad was tangled up in a crash involving Sykes and Baz, and was in tenth, with Haslam right behind his mate on the eighth lap.

On the penultimate lap Melandri began to close the gap on Guintoli and had a two-second lead over the Kawasaki boys, and it was another Aprilia battle out on track. both bikes were side-by-side going into turn 10 and Melandri went up the inside of his team-mate going into the back straight and on the final comer Melandri had the slight edge over Guintoli and took a tight double win, with Sykes in third.

Elias overtook Baz to get back fourth, with Rea, Laverty and Davies completing the top eight. Rookie Lowes was putting in a determined performance and was in tenth, just behind Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam on the seventh lap, but on the final lap managed to find some pace to get the better of Giugliano and the Lincolnshire racer finished the race in ninth, with the Italian and Haslam rounding off the top 11.

In a repeat of the original start of race two, it was Camier who once again led the Evo class. The Kent rider is still nursing a painful bicep injury and literally riding through the pain at the hot and sticky climate at Sepang. He finished the race 12th overall – and bagged another Evo victory for his BMW team. Alstare’s Christian Iddon finished in 16th, but his results don’t count because of homologation rules.