Assen WSBK: Rea takes sixth win in Holland

Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea took his sixth World Superbike win at the Assen circuit this morning, controlling the race from the front and breaking the lap record on the penultimate circuit to beat Ducati’s Chaz Davies to the line by a little over a second.

The Castletown resident was never headed in the 21-lapper but Welshman Davies made a fight of it as he first pushed pat Leon Haslam’s Aprilia on lap one for third place and then the Kawasaki of Tom Sykes a lap later to sit behind Rea and measure his title rival’s pace. Sykes did come back past but Davies held a watching brief and re-took second with 12 left.

Rea had it all in hand though, just stretching his legs when necessary, putting in a 1’35.994 to pull Davies away from the pack.

Behind the leading pair, Haslam, Sykes and local man Michael Van Der Mark scrapped it out for the final podium spot. Pata Honda’s Van Der Mark punted Sykes wide at the tight Strubben left-hander with nine laps to go - and Haslam followed him through - which put the Huddersfield rider more than a second behind and his race was run.

Haslam pushed back past the series rookie three laps later, using the RSV4’s superior pace down the start/finish straight but the Derby man’s rear tyre was beginning to give up and the Dutchman was back past with a brave move at Ramshoek for his debut WSBK podium

At the front, Davies said he knew he hadn’t got the pace to go with Rea for the final two laps when the hammer was placed firmly down and Rea broke Sykes’ lap record of 1’35.893 by just 0.004s for his sixth win of the season.

Sykes ended in fifth place, six seconds in arrears while Haslam’s team-mate Jordi Torres won the Spanish war, beating Xavi Fores to sixth place with reigning champion Sylvain Guintoli, on the second Pata Honda, in eighth. Third Spaniard Nico Terol was ninth and Leon Camier put in a sterling performance to take tenth.

It was disaster for the Voltcom Suzuki team as Alex Lowes slowed and then stopped with a problem on lap 11. He rolled off track into turn one after more engine braking problems only for Randy De Puniet to crash right behind him. The Frenchman’s GSX-R1000 missed Lowes’ bike by millimetres before somersaulting into the fence.

- See more at: http://www.bikesportnews.com/news/news-detail/assen-wsbk-rea-takes-sixth-win-in-holland#sthash.lyhi8kMx.dpuf