Aragon WSBK: Rea dominates Superpole race

Rea was jumped off the line by Ten Kate Yamaha man Loris Baz, though a mistake for the Frenchman at the first corner allowed the reigning world champion to come through.

Immediately, Rea began to build up an advantage over Baz, whose pace quickly started to fade, with the Kawasaki close to a second clear by lap four.

Rea’s lead continued to climb over the next few laps, with it standing at over two seconds at half distance.

Baz came under attack from Redding on the Ducati on the fifth tour, with the reigning British Superbike champion using the power of the V4 R Panigale to blast past the Yamaha rider into Turn 1 at the start of lap six. 

But it was too late to do anything about Rea, who cruised to an unbeaten streak of Superpole race wins in 2020 by 2.6s. 

After Redding’s victory in Race 1 on Saturday put him back into the championship lead, Rea has cut the gap down to just one point ahead of this afternoon’s second feature contest.

Michael van der Mark scythed up the inside of Yamaha stablemate Baz into Turn 7 on lap seven, and though he was snapping at Redding’s heels in the early stages, the Dutchman was unable to close the gap.

Securing third, van der Mark completes the front row for Race 2, with Rea and Redding set to launch alongside him.

Alvaro Bautista carved through from seventh on the grid on the Honda to take his best result of the season in fourth, putting him a good position for a podium challenge this afternoon.

Bautista came through on Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes at the start of lap nine, with Race 1 podium finisher Chaz Davies getting by late on to complete the top five.

Lowes ended up sixth ahead of an under-the-weather Toprak Razgatlioglu on the works Yamaha, with Michael Ruben Rinaldi on the Go Eleven Ducati and Baz rounding out the top nine spots on the grid for Race 2. 

Tom Sykes recovered to 15th on the BMW after running off at Turn 8 on the opening lap.

The Briton bounced over the gravel trap and re-joined in the middle of Turn 9, with Leandro Mercado powerless to avoid him on the Motocorsa Ducati.

Mercado had to be taken to the medical centre for checks having been stretchered off track, while the incident has been placed under investigation. 

Race results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	18'22.815
2	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	18'25.450	2.635
3	60	Michael van der Mark	Yamaha	18'26.856	4.041
4	19	Alvaro Bautista	Honda	18'28.375	5.560
5	7	Chaz Davies	Ducati	18'28.791	5.976
6	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	18'29.047	6.232
7	54	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	18'29.909	7.094
8	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	18'30.404	7.589
9	76	Loris Baz	Yamaha	18'30.724	7.909
10	91	Leon Haslam	Honda	18'34.214	11.399
11	64	Federico Caricasulo	Yamaha	18'36.019	13.204
12	12	Xavi Fores	Kawasaki	18'37.245	14.430
13	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	18'38.911	16.096
14	77	Maximilian Scheib	Kawasaki	18'39.081	16.266
15	66	Tom Sykes	BMW	18'40.773	17.958
16	50	Eugene Laverty	BMW	18'46.389	23.574
17	33	Marco Melandri	Ducati	18'46.984	24.169
18	20	Sylvain Barrier	Ducati	18'48.961	26.146
19	40	Roman Ramos	Kawasaki	18'49.605	26.790
20	13	Takumi Takahashi	Honda	19'02.614	39.799
21	63	Lorenzo Gabellini	Honda	19'31.773	1'08.958
	23	Christophe Ponsson	Aprilia	19'21.967	59.152
	36	Leandro Mercado	Ducati
View full results