Parkalgar Honda rider Eugene Laverty closed the gap on Kenan Sofuoglu by winning Sunday's World Supersport Championship British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
After failing to finish in the previous round in Brno it was vital for Laverty's title prospects that he got back to winning ways at Silverstone and the Northern Irishman got off to a fine start from pole and led the race for the opening laps.
Sofuoglu then made the race into a fascinating contest by overtaking first Gino Rea and then Laverty on lap 11, which preceded a series of such manoeuvres between the two championship rivals before Laverty allowed Sofuoglu to retain the lead for the next six laps.
Laverty's policy was based on the knowledge that his Parkalgar Honda would be better suited to a chasing role coming into the final lap and that proved to be the case as Laverty overtook Sofuolgu at Copse and held on for the remaining few corners to take the win.
Sofuoglu's championship lead now stands at 17 points, with three races remaining and Laverty is clear in what needs to be acheived if he is take the title.
"We knew we had to get the win here," he said. "But there's only three left and even if Kenan finishes second to me in each of them, then that isn't enough for us.
"What we need is young Gino [Rea] here or [Joan] Lascorz to be back and getting in between me and Kenan [Sofuolgu] to break things up a bit."
Earlier, the race had to be restarted after a terrible accident when Joan Lascorz – in third place in the overall standings – clipped Laverty and crashed into Roberto Tamburini, sending both riders into the safety barriers and setting fire to Lascorz's bike.
The Spaniard suffered concussion in the accident, while Tamburini broke his collar bone.
In the World Superbikes Championship, Laverty's fellow Northern Ireland rider Jonathan Rea was twice second on his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda to Britain's Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha).
The results mean that Rea remains in third place in the overall standings but has narrowed the gap on championship leader Max Biaggi and second placed Leon Haslam.
Comments
Add a comment