Sykes ends Rea’s reign at Assen

Click here for full WorldSBK race two results from Assen

Tom Sykes has clinched his first World Superbike race win of 2018 heading up a Kawasaki 1-2 comfortably ahead of teammate Jonathan Rea who has further increased his championship lead despite losing his Assen record.

Sykes, starting on pole on the reverse grid for race two, produced the ideal start to keep ahead of his rivals and with a clear track ahead of him quickly worked on a gap on the likes of Rea, Michael van der Mark and Chaz Davies starting on row three.

With Sykes checking out at the front, van der Mark and Rea enjoyed a race-long tussle for second place with the triple World Superbike champion eventually getting the better of the local hero to claim second place. It marks the first time in eight races Rea has not won at Assen, leaving him on equal career race wins with Carl Fogarty on 12 at the Dutch circuit, as Sykes claimed his first win at the iconic track since 2013.

Despite losing out to the Kawasaki domination in race two, van der Mark produced an impressive home round with a double podium result for the Pata Yamaha rider.

Behind the podium trio, Xavi Fores kept clear of fellow Ducati rider Chaz Davies for an impressive fourth place on the Barni Ducati with the Welsh rider losing a handful of places after being pushed wide at the first turn at the start.

Jordi Torres secured his best result with MV Agusta in sixth place holding off Marco Melandri on the Aruba.it Racing Ducati at the finish line with Loris Baz completing a confidence-boosting Assen weekend with eighth place for Althea BMW.

Toprak Razgatlioglu (Puccetti Kawasaki) and Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia) rounded out a competitive top ten with Eugene Laverty’s stand-in Davide Giugliano taking a distant 11^th place.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi turned around a frustrating race weekend which held great promise for the Aruba.it Racing Ducati junior team in 12^th place ahead of TripleM Honda’s PJ Jacobsen, the sole Honda rider with both Red Bull Hondas of Jake Gagne and Leon Camier ruled out by injury, with Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes a lowly 14^th place after a mid-race crash at the Gert Trimmer chicane.

Ondrej Jezek rounded out the points places for Guandalini Racing Yamaha with Yonny Hernandez (Pedercini Kawasaki) the final finisher as Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing Kawasaki) and Roman Ramos (Team GoEleven Kawasaki) crashed out.