WSBK: Rea Secures 10th Win of the Season in Wet Magny-Cours Race 1

Jonathan Rea came another step closer to his sixth world title with a commanding win in Magny-Cours Race 1.

The Kawasaki rider mastered the soaking wet conditions and withstood pressure from Loris Baz. The Frenchman shadowed Rea for the better part of his home race but eventually had to settle for second. Alex Lowes rounded out the podium in third.

With Scott Redding finishing fifth, Rea extended his championship advantage to 65 points and can wrap up the title on Sunday in France. Chaz Davies sits third in the table, 114 points adrift of the lead.

The BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team celebrated a sensational 1-2 in qualifying with Eugene Laverty on pole and Tom Sykes lining up in second. However, the race turned into a disaster for the German manufacturer before it even started. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) stole the holeshot from third on the grid and as Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team) dived down the inside to chase after the Kawasaki, he clipped Sykes at Grande Courbe. The Yorkshireman went down and wiped Laverty out with him – both their races ending in the gravel.

A frantic opening lap saw Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) claim Gerloff for second, upsetting the American who also fell behind Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team). Van der Mark subsequently fell victim to both, Lowes and Gerloff and lost another position to Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing) at the end of the opening lap.

Gerloff was on the move and swept round Lowes’ outside at Estoril into second and closed in on Rea in the lead. Matters got worse for the Kawasaki rider who also had to surrender to Baz a lap later and found himself demoted to fourth.

A breakaway trio of Rea, Gerloff and Baz had formed three laps into the race and kept pulling away from the field. The Frenchman pounced when his opponents made contact at the Adelaide chicane and sat right on Rea’s rear wheel in second when they crossed the line for Lap 4.

Behind them, big gaps had formed between Lowes, van der Mark and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) in positions four to six respectively. Leon Haslam (Team HRC) had found a good rhythm in the wet and was up to eighth by Lap 5, not far off Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team) and ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team GoEleven). Championship runner-up Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) was struggling in the early stages of the race down in 10^th place.

The front trio was reduced to a duo on Lap 7 when a highside at the Nurburgring chicane took Gerloff out of the race. Baz kept shadowing the Kawasaki, not allowing Rea to break away, and as Lowes continuously lost touch to the leaders, it became a two horse race for the win.

Punches were exchanged further behind between Razgatlioglu and Haslam with the latter getting the better of the Yamaha. Both riders, however, needed to find better pace as the Ducatis of Rinaldi and Redding were inching ever closer to them.

A top result was out of reach for van der Mark on Lap 15 when he lost the front at Chateaux d’Eau and had to pick his Yamaha out of the gravel. He rejoined the race but was way down in 11^th.

The gap out front had been static at around half a second, but Rea pulled the pin with seven laps to go and had extended his advantage to just under two seconds by Lap 16.

While the front positions looked established, Redding had claimed Rinaldi for seventh and was engaged in a close battle with Haslam and Razgatlioglu that would drag on until the final corners.

Unfazed by the drama unfolding behind him, Rea took the chequered flag first to secure his 10^th win of the season and his 98^th career victory. Baz yet again proved his great wet riding skills and came home in second for his third podium of the year. Lowes was unchallenged in third and was back on the rostrum for the first time since Australia while Davies continued his strong end to the season in fourth.

The fight for positions five to seven reached its boiling point on the final lap. Razgatlioglu claimed Haslam through Estoril and while the Honda rider fought back at Imola, a heavy highside took him out of the race. Razgatlioglu was forced to take avoiding action and lost fifth to Redding whose race could only be described as damage limitation.

Rinaldi crossed the line in seventh ahead of Xavi Fores (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) who equalled his best result of the season in eighth. Van der Mark’s comeback ended in ninth while Leandro Mercado (Motocorsa Racing) rounded out the top 10 at his return from injury.

Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team) was 11^th from Alvaro Bautista (Team HRC) and Sylvain Barrier (Brixx Performance). Stand-in riders Valentin Debise (Outdo Kawasaki TPR) and Xavier Pinsach (Orelac Racing Verdnatura) secured the last points on offer in 14^th and 15^th respectively.

Outside the points ranks, Samuele Cavalieri (Barni Racing Team) completed the race in 16^th ahead of Takumi Takahashi (MIE Racing Honda Team). Sykes, Laverty, Gerloff and Haslam did not rejoin the race after their crashes.