MotoGP Race And Practice Results

Twenty laps at high speed through an oppressive Thai heat, World Superbike's second race of the weekend would use the reverse grid set by the results of the first race at the Chang International Circuit, Buriram. 

Pole position man Leon Camier and second-placed Alex Lowes were followed into turn one by Michael van der Mark from the second row as Tom Sykes fell back from the front row, but everything would change by turn three, with van der Mark and Lowes pushing Camier to third ahead of Marco Melandri, Eugene Laverty and Jonathan Rea. Melandri passed Camier on the first lap as Rea carved his way through the pack to sit in fourth place at the start of the second lap and take third place at turn nine. At the end of the lap, Rea messed up the last corner and threw away his hard work to fall back to fifth place behind Chaz Davies. 

On the third lap, Michael van der Mark took the lead from his teammate into turn three while Davies continued his charge, setting the fastest lap while climbing to third place. A lap later, Rea took fourth place in the leading group of seven riders, with the first proper gap being under a second between seventh placed Xavi Fores and eighth placed Eugene Laverty. That gap disappeared at the start of lap five, with the leading nine riders all within the clean air of the rider in front of them. 

Marco Melandri came into the weekend with a problem at the rear end of his Ducati Panigale, with his small stature making him unable to shift his weight over the rear tyre. To this end, the team put a huge block of foam at the back wall of his seat, giving him something to push against in an attempt to help him stop his bike bucking on fast straights. 

It didn't work.

On the long kinked straight between turns one and three, Melandri's Ducati danced on its rear tyre in a way that wasn't as amusing as it was at the shorter Phillip Island, frustrating the Italian who had to try to tame the rear with the throttle, limiting his chances at passing bikes in top gear. 

Jordi Torres and Eugene Laverty, having caught up to the leading group of seven, both crashed between turns six and seven on lap five, bringing out yellow flags as the marshals made sure the riders were ok, limiting overtaking on lap six when things started getting interesting at the front. At turn four, Alex Lowes and Chaz Davies swapped places back and forth with Davies taking second place from the Yamaha man at turn five and holding it past the yellow flags where Lowes couldn't snatch his place back. Much further back, Tom Sykes was struggling, dropping from fourteenth place to fifteenth until the Englishman eventually pitted in, parking his Kawasaki and heading for the airport.

Chaz Davies repeated his turn four move on Michael van der Mark and took the lead on lap eight. There was finally a gap between the front two and third place, and on lap nine Xavi Fores would charge from sixth to fourth, passing Jonathan Rea into turn one and blasting past a wobbling Melandri in the fast section. Michael van der Mark set the fastest lap behind Davies as the pair kept the pace up at the front. 

Gaps started widening as Alex Lowes and Xavi Fores broke away from the fight between Marco Melandri and Jonathan Rea and the pair fought over fifth place, swapping places at turn one, the chicane section and twice at turn twelve and getting caught by Leon Camier for their troubles.

Chaz Davies set the fastest lap on lap eleven while Leon Camier passed Marco Melandri. More gaps started springing up, with Davies and van der Mark clear of Lowes who had a fluctuating gap from Fores who was three seconds clear of Rea who was breaking away from Camier who had an increasing gap from Melandri who was six seconds free of eighth-placed Toprak Razgatlioglu. 

Eventually, Michael van der Mark had to cry uncle and let Chaz Davies run away on his own at the front as all riders in the top eight had substantial gaps, with only Jonathan Rea making any moves, converting a three second gap from Xavi Fores into a fight for fourth place over four laps, with Rea entering the last lap over a second and a half clear of Fores. 

Chaz Davies took Ducati's first ever win at this track ahead of the Yamahas of Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes. Jonathan Rea took the championship lead from macro Melandri with his fourth place, while Xavi Fores was once again first independent rider, ahead of Leon Camier and Marco Melandri.

Results:

The World Superbike Saturday race was twenty laps on a 32ºC sunny day at Thailand's Chang International circuit, next door to Buriram United's "Thunder Castle" football stadium. 

Jonathan Rea started from pole position and hit the first turn ahead of his Kawasaki teammate Tom Sykes with Xavi Fores and Leon Camier contending third place behind them. At the end of the first lap, Tom Sykes took the lead from Jonathan Rea going into the last corner deep enough on the brakes to get past cleanly for first place. 

The track has a short start/finish straight with a right-handed corner at the end followed by a long straight with an almost imperceptible left-hand kink claiming to be turn two. Turn three is a right-handed hairpin at the end of the straight…ish with a few different lines through it. A few riders hit it as a double-apex hairpin, but Leon Camier tends to look like he's missing the entry as he takes a late tight entry that has a faster exit to the corner for the Honda as the run between turns three and for is the longest properly straight bit of the track, and the exit of the hairpin determines your speed onto the straight. Turn four is a fast left turn with very little opportunity to overtake, so you try to make your move at turn three and that's where Jonathan Rea took back the lead on the second lap. He held the lead through turns four to eleven, the series of corners that lead to the tight right-hander that is the last turn, turn twelve. Again, Sykes cleanly took the lead back onto the start/finish straight. 

Meanwhile, Chaz Davies worked his way up to seventh place at the end of lap two, setting the fastest lap in the process.

Lap three, turn three, Jonathan Rea, with Leon Camier snapping at his heels, stuck his bike underneath Tom Sykes' and took the lead back, with Leon Camier carrying more corner speed than either of the Kawasakis following Rea through for second place. Further back, in tenth place, Alex Lowes set the fastest lap to close up on his ninth-placed teammate Michael van der Mark. 

On the fourth lap, Xavi Fores and Marco Melandri caught up with Tom Sykes while Rea at the front set the fastest lap and had the first real gap in theta ten with eight tenths of a second over Leon Camier. Chaz Davies took sixth place from Jordi Torres. 

On lap six, Tom Sykes fell victim to turn three again, with Xavi Fores putting his Ducati in an awkward spot to take third place from the Kawasaki man. A lap later, the next man along, Marco Melandri, missed the apexes of turn three and Chaz Davies wasted no time in stealing fifth place from his teammate. 

A lap later, Davies catches and passes Tom Sykes at Sykes' favourite passing place, turn twelve. He then successfully holds off Sykes at turn three and at half race distance, he is less than a second off third-placed Xavi Fores. As Camier started closing the gap to Rea at the front to under a second, Rea sets the fastest lap and puts the lead back to over a second. 

Thirteen laps in, Xavi Fores finally gets to make a pass that works on Leon Camier, with both riders disputing the same bit of turn three. Five laps from the end, Fores breaks free of Camier while Davies closes the gap. Lap after lap, with Rea comfortably leading Fores, Davies tries to get past Camier, only to be thwarted by his rival's exceedingly good late braking and corner speed. One lap from the end, Davies finally makes a pass into turn three stick, having tried three different passing lines to Camier's three different defensive lines. 

As the flag came out, Jonathan Rea had a decent lead from Xavi Fores who had a decent lead from Chaz Davies, with Leon Camier having to settle for tomorrow's pope position with a fourth place. The fight for fifth place between Alex Lowes and Tom Sykes was won by Lowes.

Xavi Fores had his best result and increased his lead in the independent championship and moved him to third place overall, while Marco Melandri's eighth place means that Jonathan Rea's win puts Rea within two points of Melandri in the championship chase. 

Results:

Nine riders contested a hot Superpole one, with only two getting promoted to Superpole two. Lorenzo Savadori and Loris Baz were the two favourites for promotion in the first session.

Savadori looked around on the out lap to see where the other eight riders were while Baz just started racing and was the first rider to set a lap time, but after one lap, Savadori was quickest, ahead of Jake Gagne. A lap later, Gagne was on top while Savadori pitted in early. A lap later, everyone but Leandro Mercado and Roman Ramos joined Savadori in the pits, but they returned a lap later.

Loris Baz was first out of the pits, with six minutes left, and he catapulted himself into second place, but Toprak Razgatlioglu set a fast lap, knocking Gagne off the top spot. Gagne tried to answer but he crashed out at turn seven, his bike's rear snapping out and throwing him off, while Leandro Mercado sneaked into second place. Mercado's luck ran out though, as Lorenzo Savadori took first place off Razgatlioglu, knocking Mercado out of contention.

Lorenzo Savadori and Toprak Razgatlioglu joined the top ten riders for Superpole two and the opportunity to use the Pirelli qualifying tyres. Eugene Laverty and Jonathan Rea were the first two riders out, with Rea setting a 1'33.936 first time out, only to have Leon Camier knock three hundredths off his time. Rea hit right back the next lap but this time it was Alex Lowes and Marco Melandri who pushed him off the top. Tom Sykes went quicker still and a lap later, four riders were on target to go quicker, but it was time to pit in so three of the fast men abandoned their laps. Jordi Torres stayed out and stole the top spot before the qualifying tyres came out. Lorenzo Savadori didn't leave the pits in the first half of the session.

Five minutes from the flag, Jordi Torres led the field back to the tarmac and it looked like everyone would get two more laps on the faster rear tyre. Torres set a target of 1'32.972 for everyone to aim at, and Leon Camier was the first man to beat it. After everyone got their first laps in, Tom Sykes was quicker than Camier with a 1'32.817, but as the flag came out, only Jonathan Rea and Marco Melandri looked like they could get onto the front row, and as Rea hit the flag for pole position, Melandri hit the tarmac at turn nine for seventh place. 

Jonathan Rea, Tom Sykes and Leon Camier will start today's race on the front row, ahead of Jordi Torres, Xavi Fores and Alex Lowes. 

Qualifying:

Superpole One:

Superpole Two:

Alex Lowes was the quickest in the morning's untimed session, ahead of Chaz Davies and just off a tenth from Jonathan Rea's fastest time yesterday. 

Results: