Britain’s Jonathan Rea finished 3-1 at the weekend in Spain, the fourth round of eight in this year’s abbreviated World Superbike Championships, allowing him to retake the championship lead.
His Kawasaki team-mate Alex Lowes recovered from a painful crash on day one to record a sixth and then a ninth place at the Aragon circuit.
Rea firstly topped the superpole race and then finished third in the opening WSBK race on Saturday – behind Britain’s Scott Redding (Ducati) and fellow British Ducati man Chaz Davies.
Rea then won the weekend overall when he took a convincing win in the 18-lap second race, meaning Rea has now won seven of the 12 races (which includes the superpole races) this season.
The second full distance race of the weekend, officially called race two, was a front-running display of sheer determination and pace from Rea.
While his main championship rival Redding finished fourth in that second race, Rea still had to had to fight off the challenge of multiple-Aragon race winner Davies after he ran wide and allowed his rival to close up.
Rea continued to keep up his relentless pace to ease away in race two and took a margin of victory of 1.280 seconds. This was his 80th WSBK race win since he joined Kawasaki in 2015 and the 95th of his entire career.
After the latest compelling and unpredictable WSBK round, which marks the halfway point of the ‘new normal’ season – restructured due to the COVID-19 pandemic – Rea has 189 points, Redding has 179, Turkey’s Toprak Razgatlioglu 124, Davies 120, Dutch rider Michael van der Mark 110 and Lowes 102.
The Teruel Round is next up for the WSBK riders, but it will be held at the same Motorland Aragon circuit, between September 4-6.
Jonathan Rea said: “In the Superpole race I made an OK start but then Loris Baz came on the inside, so I got a little bit flustered. I knew I had to keep the rhythm really fast in the beginning because it was a good opportunity. Using the softer SCX tyre for the sprint race has a lot of potential but we did not do so many laps on it in practice, and the conditions were not as hot.
“In race two I went wide at one point and that gave Chaz the chance to attack in turn one but I wanted to attack him back straight away and set my own rhythm. I knew I could push and put my head down again. I did not expect the pace I had today in race two; I was so surprised. I knew I could be fast and the Superpole race gave me a lot of confidence. When I could really get stuck into the 1-minute 50-second laps, and keep that load going at the beginning of the race, it was easier to manage when the tyre would drop. I learned from race one yesterday.”
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