WSBK: Rea Extends Championship Lead with Hard-Fought Teruel Win

Jonathan Rea clinched a hard-fought victory in Race 2 at the Teruel Round in Aragon.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi kept the Kawasaki rider honest over race distance, but Rea eventually executed a race-winning manoeuvre with three laps remaining. Scott Redding rounded out the podium in third.

Rea extended his championship advantage and now sits 36 points ahead of Redding. Toprak Razgatlioglu moved back into third in the table standings but is already 96 points short of the lead.

Tyres were yet again a big talking point ahead of the race with a number of riders opting to run the qualifying X rubber. While Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team GoEleven) and Alvaro Bautista (Team HRC) had already completed a feature race on the X tyre, Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) and Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) ventured into the unknown on the super soft compound.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) beat polesitter Redding to the holeshot from second on the grid and led into Turn 1 from the factory Ducati, Rinaldi, Bautista and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing Ducati).

Carrying momentum from his win in the morning, Redding wasted no time and punched his way past Rea and into the lead at Turn 13. Unwilling to let go, the reigning champion stayed glued to the Ducati’s rear wheel and the duo headed a leading group of five with Rinaldi, Bautista and Davies behind them.

A chasing group was headed by Leon Haslam (Team HRC) who had claimed Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team) for sixth going into Turn 1 on Lap 3. The Turkish rider still struggled to find rhythm at MotorLand Aragon and subsequently fell victim to Lowes before also losing out to his teammate Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team) a lap later.

Bautista’s race was over with 14 laps remaining when he crashed at Turn 7 and had to retire from the race. Davies had to take action to avoid Bautista and lost even more ground to the leaders who he already had struggled to keep up with.

The fight for the lead was left reduced to a three-horse-race with Rinaldi now the fastest of the front runners. Rea threatened a move on Redding and started an attack on Lap 6. Punches were exchanged between the championship rivals, but it was Rinaldi who profitted when the battle took them wide at Turn 8 and allowed the #21 to cut back through Turn 9 and get the run on both riders, eventually diving into the lead. Redding had managed to stay ahead of Rea throughout the shenanigans, but the Kawasaki claimed him at Turn 16 and demoted him into third.

Rea was running the fastest pace of the three and lined up behind Rinaldi, looking to wait for an opportunity to pounce. Redding meanwhile struggled with the X tyre and started to gradually lose touch to the leading duo.

Rea shadowed Rinaldi and it seemed a question of when rather than if he would make a move stick. Rinaldi continued to frustrate the championship leader though who had look after look but could not execute a manoeuvre to beat the Ducati’s defensive line.

Behind the front three big gaps had formed with seven laps remaining. Davies in fourth maintained a gap to Haslam who himself held an advantage over Lowes. Further behind, van der Mark had edged away from his teammate Razgatlioglu and was running in a lonely seventh place. The race was over for Davies on Lap 13 though when he lost the front at Turn 14 and had to pick his Ducati out of the gravel.

Out front the going got feistier between Rea and Rinaldi. Rea failed to make a move stick into Turn 1 with four laps to go but briefly hit the front through Turns 6 and 7. The #1 ran wide at corner exit though, allowing Rinaldi back through and suffering a big moment when he hit the kerbs.

The championship leader had smelled blood and executed what would be the race-winning overtake with three laps to go. Rea aggressively lunged down Rinaldi’s inside at Turn 6, sitting the Italian up and making his way through. He immediately pulled the pin to pull a gap big enough to be safe down the back straight.

Despite suffering another moment going into Turn 1 on the penultimate lap, Rea managed and extended his advantage to take the chequered flag for his first win of the meeting. Rinaldi completed the race in runner-up and rounded out a great weekend with his third podium from three races. Redding had nothing to respond on the soft compound tyre and crossed the line more than five seconds behind Rea.

Haslam secured his best result of the season in fourth more than a second from Lowes in fifth. The factory Yamahas of van der Mark and Razgatlioglu finished sixth and seventh respectively ahead of the Ten Kate Racing Yamaha of Loris Baz. The GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team machines of Federico Caricasulo and Garrett Gerloff rounded out the top 10.

Eugene Laverty (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) crossed the line in 11^th from Marco Melandri (Barni Racing Team) and Xavi Fores (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing). Stand-in riders Matteo Ferrari (Motocorsa Racing) and Roman Ramos (Outdo Kawasaki TPR) secured the final points on offer in 14^th and 15^th. Takumi Takahashi (MIE Racing Honda Team) was the only rider to complete the race outside the points ranks.

Maximilian Scheib (Orelac Racing Verdnatura) was a crasher alongside Bautista and Davies while Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Sylvain Barrier (Brixx Performance) retired their bikes to the pits.