WSBK: Rea Untouchable in Drenched Magny-Cours Superpole Race

Jonathan Rea followed up his Race 1 win in Magny-Cours with another flawless victory in the Superpole Race.

The Kawasaki rider remained immaculate on a drenched circuit and held his teammate Alex Lowes at bay to take the chequered flag first. Michael van der Mark narrowly beat Scott Redding to the remaining podium spot.

With his championship advantage up to 71 points over Redding, Rea can take the crown in Race 2 in France. Chaz Davies sits third, 121 points adrift of the top of the table.

Polesitter Eugene Laverty (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) took the holeshot into Grande Courbe, closely followed by Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team).

The two Kawasaki swiftly moved into a double lead with Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team) their closest challenger. Sykes was in fourth from Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing Ducati), Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing) and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing Ducati), while Laverty struggled heavily and dropped numerous positions on the opening lap.

Sykes came to share his teammate’s fortune on Lap 2 and subsequently fell down to ninth position before pulling into the pits. Further back in the field, Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team) recovered from a poor start to the race and claimed Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team GoEleven) for seventh on Lap 3.

Rea and Lowes looked comfortable in the lead and gradually started to stretch out an advantage over van der Mark. The Dutchman was running in a lonely third place, out of touch to the front runners but with a comfortable margin to Redding behind him.

Punches were being exchanged between Baz and Davies in fifth and sixth over several laps. The Ducati rider eventually executed a beautiful manoeuvre through Imola on Lap 7 to claim the position and pull away from his opponent.

Lowes had been clinging on to his teammate’s rear tyre for the better part of the race, but Rea put tenth after tenth between them and had stretched the gap to one and a half seconds by Lap 8. Rea prevailed to lead the first Kawasaki 1-2 since Australia over the line and secured his 99^th career victory.

Behind the marque colleagues, Redding had closed in on van der Mark and the duel reached its boiling point on the final lap. The Ducati rider overshot a first attempt to overtake at the Adelaide Hairpin but stayed relentless in his ambition. Another assault at Imola saw the two riders side by side and the pair swapped paint through the final sector. Van der Mark just managed to hold Redding off and bagged the final podium spot by one a half tenths.

Davies had pulled away from Baz and secured fifth ahead of the Frenchman. Rinaldi claimed Gerloff for seventh on Lap 8 and brought his advantage home. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team) was ninth while Leandro Mercado (Motocorsa Racing) rounded out the top 10.

Leon Haslam (Team HRC) was narrowly knocked out of the top 10 in 11^th ahead of Xavi Fores (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Sylvain Barrier (Brixx Performance). Alvaro Bautista (Team HRC) struggled in the wet conditions and crossed the line in 14^th from Laverty and Valentin Debise (Outdo Kawasaki TPR).

Xavier Pinsach (Orelac Racing Verdnatura) came home in 18^th ahead of Takumi Takahashi (MIE Racing Honda Team) and Sykes, who rejoined the race after mechanical work on his BMW, completed the field. Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team) did not finish the race following a crash on Lap 5.