Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli is the early world Superbike championship leader after a dramatic end to the season-opening Australian round at Phillip Island.
Polesitter Guintoli won the second of the two races when race one winner Eugene Laverty’s Suzuki blew up in a cloud of smoke on lap 15 of the scheduled 22 laps.
The trail of oil left on the track caused officials to end the race, calling the results on positions after 14 laps but with Laverty eliminated.
Laverty was running in second place behind Guintoli’s Aprilia when the mishap occurred.
Guintoli placed third in race one.
He’ll take a 10-point lead into round two at Aragon in Spain on April 13, with Loris Baz (31) second from Marco Melandri (Aprilia, 28), Davide Guigliano (Ducati, 26), Laverty (25), Tom Sykes (25), Jonathan Rea (Honda, 21) and Chaz Davies (Ducati, 17).
“I was probably a little bit overconfident in race one and I burnt my tyres too early,” said Guintoli.
“In race two I tried to be more composed and conservative and it paid off.
“After the nightmare this winter with the double surgery on my shoulder, it feels really good to be back on the podium.”
Coincidentally he and Laverty also split the two race wins last year when they were teammates in the factory Aprilia squad.
Laverty was far from distraught despite his misfortune in race two on Sunday, having earlier notched Suzuki’s first world superbike victory since 2010.
“That win meant everything to me,” said Laverty. “It had been 94 races since Suzuki won a world superbike race, and I told the guys I wouldn’t let that drought extend to 100.
“But I didn’t expect to get the win so soon. We got stronger at the end of the race, and hopefully we can join Aprilia and Kawasaki in the fight for the championship.
“I still had a smile on my face when the bike went up in smoke in race two, because if you had told me at the beginning of the weekend I was going to have a win I would have taken that.”
Melandri finished second in race one.
The race two podium was completed by factory Kawasaki pair Baz and world champion Sykes, who improved five spots from his race one result.
Australian Glenn Allerton (BMW) finished 11th and 15th in the two races on his Evo machine.
