WSBK: France (Penultimate Spoilers)

If Sykes outpoints Guntoli by 20, he takes the title at Magny Cours. Johnny Rea hasn't been mathematically eliminated yet, but has little chance.

Rumors continue that Rea will slot into Loris Baz' seat at Kawasaki, with Baz reportedly going to MotoGP w/Forward. Aprilia has yet to get off the pot and announce whether they'll have a WSBK team at all next season. Guintoli has been rumored to take a seat at Ten Kate if Aprilia drops out.

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It's a shame Dorna aren't doing more to promote WSBK. I understand their heart lies in MotoGP, so I guess it's the FIM's fault for allowing them to take a successful, competing series and basically starve it slowly.

I don't see Dorna stopping support for SBK they are out to make money with all their series. I see less action on all the SBK thread sites from the fans much like when it turned into the Ducati Cup years ago. Each series has it's pundit's SBK is in a lull when they get their riders to compete with the aliens of GP it will skyrocket again. No need to flame but Sykes is the only rider I am interested in the rest are GP has beens or cherry pickers. I was great to see Leon do so well with his shot on 69's ride.

FP1

1. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Aprilia Racing RSV4 1m 38.366s
2. Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 1m 38.652s
3. Marco Melandri ITA Aprilia Racing RSV4 1m 38.984s
4. Leon Haslam GBR PATA Honda CBR1000RR 1m 39.047s
5. Eugene Laverty IRL Voltcom Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 1m 39.054s
6. Davide Giugliano ITA Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 39.107s
7. Alex Lowes GBR Voltcom Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 1m 39.316s
8. Jonathan Rea GBR PATA Honda CBR1000RR 1m 39.642s
9. Loris Baz FRA Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 1m 39.676s
10. Toni Elias ESP Red Devils Roma Aprilia RSV4 1m 39.763s
11. Chaz Davies GBR Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 39.842s
12. Max Neukirchner GER 3C Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 39.994s
13. Xavi Fores ESP 3C Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 40.122s
14. David Salom ESP Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 1m 40.460s (E)
15. Niccolo Canepa ITA Althea Ducati 1199 Panigale R 1m 40.480s (E)
16. Lorenzo Lanzi ITA 3C Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 40.880s
17. Claudio Corti ITA MV Agusta RC F4RR 1m 40.924s
18. Sheridan Morais RSA IRON BRAIN Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 41.189s (E)
19. Jeremy Guarnoni FRA MRS Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 41.303s (E)
20. Sylvain Barrier FRA BMW Italia S1000RR 1m 41.337s (E)
21. Fabienn Foret FRA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 41.496s (E)
22. Gabor Rizmayer HUN Team Toth BMW S1000RR 1m 43.023s (E)
23. Bryan Staring AUS IRON BRAIN Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 43.126s (E)
24. Geoff May USA Team Hero EBR 1190RX 1m 43.336s
25. Alessandro Andreozzi ITA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 43.415s (E)
26. Imre Toth HUN Team Toth BMW S1000RR 1m 43.623s
27. Aaron Yates USA Team Hero EBR 1190RX 1m 44.511s
28. Nicolas Salchaud FRA Dream Team MV Agusta RC F4RR 1m 45.484s

SS Q

PJ Jacobsen 6th, Martin Cardenas 23d

Superpole

1. Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 1m 36.366s
2. Davide Giugliano ITA Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 36.593s
3. Jonathan Rea GBR PATA Honda CBR1000RR 1m 36.906s
4. Chaz Davies GBR Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 37.021s
5. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Aprilia Racing RSV4 1m 37.184s
6. Marco Melandri ITA Aprilia Racing RSV4 1m 37.190s
7. Loris Baz FRA Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 1m 37.215s
8. Alex Lowes GBR Voltcom Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 1m 37.270s
9. Eugene Laverty IRL Voltcom Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 1m 37.407s
10. Leon Haslam GBR PATA Honda CBR1000RR 1m 37.575s
11. Xavi Fores ESP 3C Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 37.673s
12. Max Neukirchner GER 3C Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 37.877s

Grid positions determined by SP1

13. Sylvain Barrier FRA BMW Italia S1000RR 1m 38.415s (E)
14. Toni Elias ESP Red Devils Roma Aprilia RSV4 1m 38.621s
15. Lorenzo Lanzi ITA 3C Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 38.883s
16. Niccolo Canepa ITA Althea Ducati 1199 Panigale R 1m 39.367s (E)
17. David Salom ESP Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 1m 39.452s (E)
18. Claudio Corti ITA MV Agusta RC F4RR 1m 39.518s
19. Sheridan Morais RSA IRON BRAIN Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 39.701s (E)
20. Fabien Foret FRA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 39.850s (E)

Did not progress to Superpole

21. Jeremy Guarnoni FRA MRS Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 40.427s (E)
22. Alessandro Andreozzi ITA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 40.926s (E)
23. Bryan Staring AUS IRON BRAIN Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 41.181s (E)
24. Geoff May USA Team Hero EBR 1190RX 1m 42.051s
25. Aaron Yates USA Team Hero EBR 1190RX 1m 42.406s
26. Imre Toth HUN Team Toth BMW S1000RR 1m 42.470s
27. Gabor Rizmayer HUN Team Toth BMW S1000RR 1m 43.023s (E)
28. Nicolas Salchaud FRA Dream Team MV Agusta RC F4RR 1m 44.559s

Magny-Cours official WSBK lap records
Best lap: Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 1m 36.366s (2014)
Race lap record: Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 1m 38.345s (2013)


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Glad to see Rea put the Honda on the front row.

GOOOO TOM!!!!:dllama

Angry face or not, Marco stuck it to them! F team orders!
Comes down to rider's ability and not some corporate political crap!

:huh

That looked awkward, or at least not very logical.
Melandri evidently followed team orders in Race 1, but there were thousands of ways to not make your team's management look like fools at the end of Race 2. Unless they did all by themselves unsuccessfully trying to pull him back anyway after he straightened things with them before Race 2. Who knows?
I agree that it is more fair to him and to the sport to get the win after such performances.

Maybe Rea hasn't got that Kawasaki seat after all

Former AMA Supersport east champion and AMA Red Bull Rookies kid Leandro Mercado wins the STK1000 title after rival Lorenzo Savadori crashes out of a comfortable lead on the last lap.

That was the weirdest two SBK races I've ever seen. Marco is either the cagiest rider in the series, or clinically insane.

He said in his post-race interview that he could follow team orders for one race but his personal sponsor wouldn't let him drop the 2nd race.
Fair play to him, Laverty should have done the same when he let Biaggi past in 2011.
A win is a win is a win.

[SIZE=+1]Team Orders: Interesting Concept[/SIZE]

That just plain ol' sucked. Those little stunts just took the shine off the whole season for me. I'm really disappointed in Sykes. I thought he was made of sterner stuff. Taking a place like that is a low-class move.

Odd that Aprillia didn't put the team orders out for race 2. Championship would be five points closer. They did it last year in a number of races. Meladri was faster than Guintoli, and did deserve the win, but it seems like Aprillia doesn't really support him like they did an Italian rider. Odd.

And Baz also made a show of giving up that place. Because he and Sykes are best friends and all...

I wonder how many people critical of "team orders" blasted Pedrosa when he raced Hayden and crashed so many years ago instead of letting Hayden go. Or called Melandri/Halsam stupid when they took each other out while riding BMWs a few years ago. Or any other number of team rider stupidity moves.

I get the sense that people will whine on both sides of the argument, depending on the position their preferred rider is in.

I think team orders for a championship are fine, but a) let the faster guy demonstrate that he can go faster and then allow the pass with some measure of style and grace and b) provide some recognition/compensation for the rider that allows it. There are exceptions of course, but absent a good reason to denying your team-mate and team a world championship I think it's ok.

Sykes had a chance to go down in history as a WSBK immortal. Imagine if he had not taken that place from Baz. Finished fourth, then gotten in front of a microphone and said, "We don't care what the girls from Aprilia are doing. We're going to win this championship the old-fashioned way. By kicking everyone's asses. See you in three weeks." The entire motorcycle universe would be bleeding green.