Pata Honda riders Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam scored valuable championship points in today's two sixth-round World Superbike championship races at Sepang in Malaysia but were unable to challenge at the front of the field.

Today's two 16-lap encounters at the fast and flowing 5.548km Sepang circuit near Kuala Lumpur were both won by Marco Melandri, with Jonathan Rea finishing the two races in sixth position as he battled his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP with temperatures in the mid-30s and the track above 50˚C.

Rea was innocently caught in a first lap crash in the first outing and was forced off the Sepang circuit at turn three before rejoining in last place. The 27-year-old quickly set about taking advantage of the absence of series leader Tom Sykes and scored ten valuable championship points at the flag.

Race two was interrupted by oil on the track and restarted over ten laps, with Rea starting from seventh place. He matched the pace of riders in front of him but was not able to improve on his first race result.

Rea's Pata Honda team-mate, Leon Haslam got a good start to race one but experienced corner entry problems on his way to seventh place. His second outing was no easier in the Sepang heat and the 30-year-old British rider could finish no better than eleventh.

Jonathan Rea - 6th and 6th

It's been a very tough weekend and it's not where we want to be. But we kind of made some steps forward when it mattered, especially in race two when I was able to carry a much better pace than I have all weekend in the heat. But it seems our engine braking system is too sensitive to different conditions and different circuits, which is frustrating because when I had grip at the beginning I had no problem entering the corners but at the end of the race I had a lot of chatter from the rear when the grip went down. But I really enjoyed riding this track, even though we didn't get the full potential out of the CBR this weekend. I look forward to the next race at Misano because it's a circuit that I love.


Leon Haslam - 7th and 11th

I think we've both struggled this weekend, and I'm not sure whether it's the hot conditions or the low grip levels. We made a different plan for this weekend on the chassis and it's definitely showed up some positives. We have a couple of technical issues which set us back a little but in the race it was quite difficult with me and Jonathan riding around for the lesser points positions which is not ideal. Hopefully we can learn a lot from this weekend and take that to Misano.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

Jonathan did not really have good qualifying or practice sessions and we went back to a setting from yesterday. Two sixth places were not too bad under the circumstances and probably the maximum for this track for us at the moment. We'll be working hard to be able to fight again for the podium at Misano. Leon was able to stay with Jonathan quite well when he passed him in race one and we made some positive steps during the weekend. His position in race two was a bit of a disappointment though, so we'll have to see what happened there. All in all it's been quite a tough weekend so we look forward to going back to Europe and Misano.

Event results - Round 6- Race 1

1 Marco Melandri 33'42.359 ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
2 Sylvain Guintoli 0.620 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Eugene Laverty 12.865 IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
4 Chaz Davies 15.437 GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
5 Toni Elias 15.723 SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
6 Jonathan Rea 31.304 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
7 Leon Haslam 34.093 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
8 Davide Giugliano 35.804 ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
9 David Salom 42.031 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
10 Leon Camier 49.465 GBR BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
11 Jeremy Guarnoni 53.715 FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
12 Alessandro Andreozzi 1'07.783 ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
13 Bryan Staring 1'10.746 AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
14 Imre Toth 1'18.143 HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
15 Roamin Lanusse 1'21.026 FRA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
16 Aaron Yates 1'49.054 USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
17 Niccolo Canepa DNF ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
18 Sheridan Morais DNF RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
19 Peter Sebestyen DNF HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
20 Claudio Corti DNF ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
21 Fabien Foret DNF FRA KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
22 Alex Lowes DNF GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
23 Loris Baz DNF FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
24 Tom Sykes DNF GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team

Event results - Round 6- Race 2

1 Marco Melandri 21'00.424 ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
2 Sylvain Guintoli 2.689 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Tom Sykes 2.689 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
4 Toni Elias 5.386 SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
5 Loris Baz 5.514 FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
6 Jonathan Rea 7.073 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
7 Eugene Laverty 7.476 IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
8 Chaz Davies 11.057 GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
9 Alex Lowes 15.866 GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
10 Davide Giugliano 16.206 ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
11 Leon Haslam 16.488 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
12 Leon Camier 23.820 GBR BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
13 David Salom 30.653 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
14 Jeremy Guarnoni 31.266 FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
15 Niccolo Canepa 43.009 ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
16 Bryan Staring 46.127 AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
17 Sheridan Morais 58.167 RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
18 Imre Toth 1'00.017 HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
19 Peter Sebestyen 1'03.574 HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
20 Aaron Yates 1'13.522 USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
21 Roamin Lanusse DNF FRA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
22 Alessandro Andreozzi DNF ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
23 Fabien Foret DNF FRA KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
24 Ayrton Badovini DNF ITA BIMOTA Team Alstare
25 Christian Iddon DNF GBR BIMOTA Team Alstare

Championship standings

1 Tom Sykes 201 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Sylvain Guintoli 188 pts FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Jonathan Rea 179 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
4 Loris Baz 170 pts FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
5 Marco Melandri 147 pts ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
6 Chaz Davies 130 pts GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
7 Davide Giugliano 96 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
8 Eugene Laverty 90 pts IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
9 Toni Elias 89 pts SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
10 Leon Haslam 89 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
11 Alex Lowes 80 pts GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
12 David Salom 56 pts ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
13 Niccolo Canepa 39 pts ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
14 Leon Camier 30 pts GBR BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
15 Jeremy Guarnoni 19 pts FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
16 Luca Scassa 16 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
17 Fabien Foret 14 pts FRA KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
18 Sheridan Morais 10 pts RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
19 Claudio Corti 10 pts ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
20 Alessandro Andreozzi 8 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
21 Glen Allerton 6 pts AUS BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
22 Kervin Bos 5 pts NED HONDA Winteb LiquidRubber Racing T.
23 Bryan Staring 3 pts AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
24 Michel Fabrizio 2 pts ITA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
25 Imre Toth 2 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
26 Roamin Lanusse 1 pts FRA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
27 Peter Sebestyen 0 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
28 Geoff May 0 pts USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
29 Christian Iddon 0 pts GBR BIMOTA Team Alstare
30 Aaron Yates 0 pts USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR

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