[WSBK] First victory for Yamaha in World Superbike since 2011

It was behind Tom Sykes, new Superpole record holder with 44 to his credit, and World Championship leader Johnny Rea, that Loris achieved the great feat of qualifying his BMW Althea on the first row of the starting grid in England. With the third time, he was ahead of the Aprilia of Lorenzo Savadori, the Yamaha of Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark, and the other Aprilia of Eugene Laverty. On the other hand, it was a rout for Ducati with Chaz Davies (victim of a sprained left ankle) ninth, and Marco Melandri twelfth. Furthermore, it was necessary to note the good performance of wild card rider Bradley Ray (21 years old) on his BSB Suzuki (Motec gearbox, without anti-slip or anti-slip) with which he won the first two races of the British Superbike, precisely in Donington. Ray qualified tenth on his Buildbase GSX-R.

At the start, given in the dry for 23 laps, the fastest to set off was Jonathan Rea ahead of Tom Sykes, Alex Lowes, Michael van der Mark, Lorenzo Savadori and Loris Baz. Van der Mark took third position from his teammate Alex Lowes.

The two official Kawasakis retained the advantage ahead of the two Yamahas, the Aprilia of Savadori and the BMW of Baz. Tom Sykes took command on lap four. But he went out too wide under braking and Rea passed him again, closely followed by van der Mark.

Sykes regained first position, ahead of Rea, van der Mark, Lowes, Savadori, Laverty and Baz.

A group of five drivers stood out at the front, including Sykes, Rea, van der Mark, Lowes and Savadori. With 15 laps remaining, Baz was seventh at 4.2.

Van der Mark took the lead with 8 laps remaining, ahead of Sykes, Rea, Lowes, Savadori, Laverty and Baz.

Melandri fell without seriousness, while van der Mark increased his lead over Rea, Sykes, Lowes and Savadori. With 4 laps to go, van der Mark was 0.6 ahead of Rea, 1.7 ahead of Sykes and 4.1 ahead of Lowes.

Johnny Rea was getting closer to the Dutch leader, on whom he put maximum pressure. But van der Mark resisted brilliantly, without getting angry. The gap stabilized at 0.6 between the first two.

Van der Mark won 1.1 ahead of Rea and 2.1 ahead of Sykes. Baz finished seventh at 15.9.

It was the first victory for a Dutch rider in the Superbike World Championship and the first for Yamaha since Portimao in 2011.

Race 1 ranking:

Provisional ranking of the World Championship: