Pata Honda rider Jonathan Rea took his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP to fourth and fifth place finishes in today’s two 10th-round World Superbike championship races at Jerez in Spain, retaining his third place in the series with just two rounds to go.

The two races were won by Italian Marco Melandri, with French rider Sylvain Guintoli taking two second places and series leader Tom Sykes scoring a third in race two but seeing his championship lead reduced.

Rea’s Pata Honda team-mate Leon Haslam finished seventh and eighth in the two 20-lap outings which were run in cooler, more overcast conditions than the earlier practice and qualifying sessions at the 4.423km Jerez circuit.

Following the cancellation of the Moscow round, the World Superbike championship will reconvene in one month’s time for round 11 at the French circuit of Magny-Cours.

Jonathan Rea - P4 and P5

I’m really happy with today because it was hard to have high expectations last night, knowing we had to make a big change. But when we reverted to the previous spec engine and made some changes to the front of the bike I was able to ride the way I like without having to change my style too much. Starting from tenth on the grid really didn’t help me to use the tyre to its full potential and gain lap times at the beginning; but in the end my pace was really, really strong in both races. We can take a lot of positives but, to be honest, we were chasing our tails a little earlier in the weekend.

Leon Haslam - P7 and P8

In race one I had a terrible start and struggled a bit. When we got to half race distance I think I went the wrong way with the buttons and made hard work for myself in the second half of the race. We made better steps in race two but I just couldn’t get past Loris [Baz]. I made a few mistakes but always caught him back within a lap. It was good to have a battle but it would have been nice to get by him and maybe get up to Eugene [Laverty]. But I was happy enough – we made good steps between the two races electronically. We knew this round would be tough but we’ve come away with two top eights and, even though I would prefer to fight with the next group, I enjoyed a battle so, all-in-all not too bad.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

Jonathan had quite a positive warm-up and the changes we made worked out well. He had a good start from tenth and then really got into the races. Fourth was a good result in race one and he was just a little short from another fourth in race two. With fourth and fifth, however, he is still third in the championship, so that’s good. Leon had a lonely seventh in race one but we matched the electronics better with tyre life for race two and he was able to battle until the end. The second race was actually better, despite finishing eighth, and I think he’ll be fighting in the top five by the end of the season.

Event results - Round 10- Race 1

1 Marco Melandri 34'20.164s ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
2 Sylvain Guintoli 1.397 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Chaz Davies 4.283 GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
4 Jonathan Rea 5.705 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
5 Tom Sykes 6.979 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
6 Eugene Laverty 7.342 IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
7 Leon Haslam 14.868 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
8 Toni Elias 23.853 SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
9 David Salom 25.886 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
10 Sylvain Barrier 26.536 FRA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
11 Jeremy Guarnoni 41.308 FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
12 Alessandro Andreozzi 46.672 ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
13 Sheridan Morais 48.742 RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
14 Niccolo Canepa 50.131 ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
15 Claudio Corti 1'03.677 ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
16 Gabor Rizmayer 1'14.881 HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
17 Geoff May 1'22.832 USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
18 Imre Toth 1'35.170 HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
19 Aaron Yates DNF USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
20 Loris Baz DNF FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
21 Alex Lowes DNF GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
22 Davide Giugliano DNF ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
23 Bryan Staring DNF AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team

Event results - Round 10- Race 2

1 Marco Melandri 34'25.940s ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
2 Sylvain Guintoli 2.845 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Tom Sykes 6.097 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
4 Chaz Davies 7.749 GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
5 Jonathan Rea 7.935 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
6 Eugene Laverty 10.510 IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
7 Loris Baz 16.078 FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
8 Leon Haslam 16.098 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
9 Alex Lowes 16.554 GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
10 Toni Elias 25.840 SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
11 Sylvain Barrier 36.839 FRA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
12 Sheridan Morais 55.531 RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
13 Jeremy Guarnoni 55.980 FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
14 Gabor Rizmayer 1'18.354 HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
15 Niccolo Canepa 1'26.338 ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
16 Aaron Yates 1'31.468 USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
17 Alessandro Andreozzi DNF ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
18 Imre Toth DNF HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
19 Geoff May DNF USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
20 Claudio Corti DNF ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
21 Davide Giugliano DNF ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
22 David Salom DNF ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
23 Bryan Staring DNF AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team

Championship standings

1 Tom Sykes 352 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Sylvain Guintoli 321 pts FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Jonathan Rea 285 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
4 Marco Melandri 267 pts ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
5 Loris Baz 262 pts FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
6 Chaz Davies 188 pts GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
7 Eugene Laverty 154 pts IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
8 Davide Giugliano 153 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
9 Toni Elias 151 pts SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
10 Leon Haslam 150 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
11 Alex Lowes 126 pts GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
12 David Salom 95 pts ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
13 Niccolo Canepa 54 pts ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
14 Jeremy Guarnoni 41 pts FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
15 Leon Camier 37 pts GBR BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
16 Sylvain Barrier 32 pts FRA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
17 Sheridan Morais 24 pts RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
18 Alessandro Andreozzi 21 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
19 Luca Scassa 16 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
20 Fabien Foret 14 pts FRA KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
21 Claudio Corti 14 pts ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
22 Bryan Staring 12 pts AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
23 Glen Allerton 6 pts AUS BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
24 Riccardo Russo 5 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
25 Kervin Bos 5 pts NED HONDA Winteb LiquidRubber Racing T.
26 Gabor Rizmayer 3 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
27 Michel Fabrizio 2 pts ITA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
28 Imre Toth 2 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
29 Roamin Lanusse 1 pts FRA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
30 Peter Sebestyen 0 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
31 Geoff May 0 pts USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
32 Christian Iddon 0 pts GBR BIMOTA Team Alstare
33 Aaron Yates 0 pts USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR

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