Ivo Lopes produced two impressive performances in the fifth round of the Spanish Superbike Championship at Circuito de Navarra in northern Spain this weekend (16/17 September) to extend his lead at the top of the points standings.
The Spanish rider produced a strong effort in Saturday’s qualifying session to lap the 3.933 km close to Los Arcos four tenths of a second quicker than his nearest rival, and closest championship challenger, Roman Ramos. Series pacesetter Lopes was also forced to fend of competition from a range of other rivals including the returning Marc Alcoba and high profile star Tito Rabat.
Despite the quality of the grid, Lopes produced a well-managed ride for Team Easyrace BMW, leading home Oscar Gutierrez on the first of Team Honda Laglisse’s entries at the head of the field. After 17 laps of the Circuito de Navarra layout, Lopes was over two seconds ahead of Gutierrez as he claimed his fourth win in nine races.
Alcoba completed the podium in the first Superbike race, with Ramos finishing fourth to secure a strong haul of points despite losing ground to the championship leader. Rabat, twice a winner at MotorLand Aragon earlier in the season, completed the top-five.
The second race was far from simple for any of the competitors, with rain falling on Sunday afternoon. This resulted in an dramatic start, with Rabat storming into an early lead as the field kicked up spray on its way into turn one for the first time. Alcoba took the lead before the end of the first lap whilst it was the unfortunate Juan Jose Nuñez who was first to fall in tricky conditions.
By the time the field started the third lap, Lopes was in the lead and he began to assert control of the race in the tough conditions. Alcoba was unable to stick with the pace being set by the championship leader’s BMW and ultimately dropped behind the Honda of Japanese rider Naomichi Uramoto.
Lopes crossed the line more than seven seconds clear of the Japanese rider after 15 wet laps, with Alcoba completing the podium positions. Oscar Gutierrez and Daniel Saez completed the top-five after several other riders fell by the wayside, including early leader Rabat.
Crucially for the championship, Ramos also failed to finish the second race, meaning that Lopes now leads the standings by 74 points, with just 100 remaining across the four final races of the season.
Spanish Superbike Championship, Circuito de Navarra, Race 1 Result
- Ivo Lopes (BMW Easyrace Team)
- Oscar Gutierrez (Team Honda Laglisse) +2.269s
- Marc Alcoba (Andotrans Team Torrentó) +5.873s
- Roman Ramos (Kawasaki Palmeto PL Racing Team) +10.364s
- Tito Rabat (TR53 Racing Team) +13.184s
- Naomichi Uramoto (JEG Racing Team) +14.412s
- Unai Orradre (Team Honda Laglisse) +16.682s
- Leonardo Taccini (BMW Easyrace Team) +29.948s
- Guillaume Antiga (JEG Racing) +34.416s
- Eduardo Montero (Team Honda Laglisse) +35.563s
Click here to view the full result from Spanish Superbike Championship Race 1
Spanish Superbike Championship, Circuito de Navarra, Race 2 Result
- Ivo Lopes (BMW Easyrace Team)
- Naomichi Uramoto (JEG Racing Team) +7.088s
- Marc Alcoba (Andotrans Team Torrentó) +13.751s
- Oscar Gutierrez (Team Honda Laglisse) +20.865s
- Daniel Saez (Alma Racing Team) +1m28.925s
- Eduardo Montero (Team Honda Laglisse) +1m30.998s
- Ville Valtonen (Sensetec Oy) +1m32.840s
- Leonardo Taccini (BMW Easyrace Team) +1 lap
- Mathias Poulsen (Yamaha Team Scandinavia) +1 lap
- Guillaume Antiga (JEG Racing) +1 lap
Click here to view the full result from Spanish Superbike Championship Race 2