Italian rider Andrea Antonelli has died after a horrific crash on the first lap of Sunday’s World Supersport race at the Moscow Raceway.
The race started in torrential rain, and the 25-year-old Kawasaki privateer was one of three riders involved in a collision on the straight between Turns 14 and 15 at the end of lap one. Antonelli was hit by compatriot Lorenzo Zanetti’s Honda as he went down and never regained consciousness.
The race was immediately red-flagged and Antonelli was rushed to hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
All racing scheduled for the rest of the day, including the second World Superbike race, was cancelled.
Heavy rain had begun to fall during the final laps of the first World Superbike race earlier in the day, causing several top riders, among them Superpole winner Davide Guigliano on a factory Aprilia, to crash out.
RACE 1
Earlier, BMW works rider Marco Melandri took his third World Superbike win of the season in an epic Race 1 that saw only 11 finishers after a string of crashes in constantly changing weather and one dramatic technical failure.
Scarcely had the lights gone out than veteran Ducati rider Carlos Checa threw it away in Turn 1, followed before the end of lap one by Jules Cluzel (Suzuki), Lorenzo Savadori (Kawasaki), and BMW privateer Vittorio Iannuzzo. Cluzel managed to get going again but for the rest, their race was run.
Superpole winner Davide Giugliano (Aprilia) went down in Turn 1 at the beginning of lap two and, two laps later, Tom Sykes’ Kawasaki coasted to a stop in the same place - and then burst into flames!
Melandri’s works BMW team mate Chaz Davies, was showing the survivors just how it was done with a master class in machine control under unpredictable conditions.
By lap 20 however, it was raining hard, making the circuit practically unrideable on slick tyres, and the 2013 flag-to-flag rule came into play, allowing riders to go into the pits to change tyres.
Among those who did was Melandri and, thanks to a very slick wheel-change by his crew, he lost very little time and was able to close on Davies, pass him four laps from the end and pull away to win by an emphatic 7.441sec.
Checa’s factory Ducati team mate Ayrton Badovini, a former World Superstock 1000 champion, looked remarkably comfortable in the streaming wet conditions of the closing stages, and was able to pass Honda’s Jonathan Rea at the beginning of the final lap to give the 1199 Panigale R its long-awaited first podium finish.
Championship leader Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Factory) put in another heroic ride to finish behind Aprilia privateer Michel Fabrizio, despite the pain of dislocated right collarbone, which wasn’t helped by a big moment in the first half of the race.
RESULTS – RACE 1
1 Marco Melandri (Italy) BMW S1000 RR - 46min03.043
2 Chaz Davies (Britain) BMW S1000 RR +7.441sec
3 Ayrton Badovini (Italy) Ducati Panigale 1199R +12.754
4 Jonathan Rea (Britain) Honda CBR1000RR +21.317
5 Michel Fabrizio (Italy) Aprilia RSV4 Factory +47.456
6 Sylvain Guintoli (France) Aprilia RSV4 Factory +1min00.999
7 Max Neukirchner (Germany) Ducati Panigale 1199R +1min04.762
8 Loris Baz (France) Kawasaki ZX-10R +1min04.947
9 Leon Camier (Britain) Suzuki GSX-R1000 +1min36.140
10 Jules Cluzel (France) Suzuki GSX-R1000 +1 lap
11 Federico Sandi (Italy) Kawasaki ZX-10R +1 lap
POINTS(after eight of 15 rounds)
1 Sylvain Guintoli (France) Aprilia RSV4 Factory – 239
2 Tom Sykes (Britain) Kawasaki ZX-10R – 235
3 Marco Melandri (Italy) BMW S1000 RR – 207
4 Eugene Laverty (Ireland) Aprilia RSV4 Factory – 190
5 Chaz Davies (Britain) BMW S1000 RR – 174
6 Loris Baz (France) Kawasaki ZX-10R – 144
7 Jonathan Rea (Britain) Honda CBR1000RR – 138
8 Michel Fabrizio (Italy) Aprilia RSV4 Factory – 131
9 Davide Giugliano (Italy) Aprilia RSV4 Factory – 98
10 Leon Camier (Britain) Suzuki GSX-R1000 – 87