Gordon Ritchie | April 21, 2018
2018 Assen WorldSBK Race One Results—Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) scored a record-equalling 12th WorldSBK race win at Assen with a near start-to-finish leading performance in race one, holding off local hero Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK) by just under a second.
2018 Assen WorldSBK Race One Results
Rea (1) defeated hometown hero van der Mark by the skin of his teeth.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) came through from a third row start to finish third, 1.2 down on Rea, with the slow-starting Tom Sykes’ (Kawasaki Racing Team) fourth, making up a lot of ground to and finishing, 1.4 behind Rea in another tense Assen race.
Rea led for most of the early part of the 21-lap Assen race, but just before halfway van der Mark sent the sun-kissed locals wild with a clean pass to take the lead.
Rea reasserted himself shortly after with Davies coming through into second on lap 12, dropping back to take third.
Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Team Ducati) was hassling VDM for third for some time, in a four-rider, three manufacture, fight.
Four became five as Sykes’ race set-up came to him and he tagged on the back of Fores with seven laps to go.
As the Spaniard slowed, to finally finish fifth, Sykes passed under braking and tried to catch the top riders.
Three laps to go and the top three were covered by less than a second, and with Sykes right with them the only real certainty on the final lap was that Rea would win – barring disaster that never came his way.
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was sixth, the resurgent
Loris Baz (Althea Racing BMW) seventh and Argentinean rider Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) eighth.
Jordi Torres (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) rounded out the top ten places. Pole man Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK) had a disaster in 12th place. The lone Honda rider, PJ Jacobsen (TripleM Honda World Superbike Team), was 14th.
With one race to go tomorrow, Jonathan Rea leads Davies by 21 points after seven races.
2018 Assen WorldSBK Race One Results
