Assen WSBK: Rea beats Davies, Hayden completes podium

Defending team champion Kawasaki enjoyed the best start to the race with Rea running right behind pole-sitter Tom Sykes from fourth on the grid even before Turn 1.

Despite failing to advance from sixth off the line, Chaz Davies made strong progress during the opening lap by overtaking both van der Mark and Sylvain Guintoli, as well as taking advantage of teammate Davide Giugliano running wide.

Sykes made a mistake at the first turn on Lap 2, which allowed Rea to sneak through - but the Ducati of Davies soon was ahead of both of them, leading the race.

In an attempt to counter-attack, Rea overshot Turn 1 and dropped behind Sykes and Van der Mark, the Dutchman and his teammate Nicky Hayden joining the leading group.

After a couple of laps of putting pressure on Sykes, van der Mark forced his way through the Briton.

Having soon fallen behind Rea as well, Sykes tried to claim third back on the outside of the Ulsterman but ended up crashing out.

Not hindered by his teammate's retirement, Rea quickly overtook van der Mark as the race passed halfway point.

However, despite running right behind Davies, Rea was forced to defend from Honda's local driver for numerous laps, the duo trading places a couple of times.

Rea's first overtaking attempt on Davies only lasted for a couple of corners on Lap 16 of 21 but he was through for good next time around.

Van der Mark immediately followed Rea through and even grabbed the lead temporarily but, with just three laps to go, he pushed his bike over the limit and ended up crashing out.

Having built a lead of a second, Rea took the chequered flag in first with Davies taking second.

Running right behind the leaders, 2006 MotoGP champion Hayden secured his maiden WSBK podium with Leon Camier securing his best finish with MV Agusta in fourth.

Althea BMW duo Jordi Torres and Markus Reiterberger took fifth and seventh respectively, sandwiching Lorenzo Savadori.

The top 10 was completed by Alex Lowes, Roman Ramos and guest rider Lucas Mahias.

Front row starters Guintoli and Giugliano both failed to finish the race, the Frenchman crashing out early in the race and the Italian retiring in the pits.

Full results

Pos.	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki
2	Chaz Davies	Ducati	1.662
3	Nicky Hayden	Honda	5.365
4	Leon Camier	MV Agusta	15.542
5	Jordi Torres	BMW	16.922
6	Lorenzo Savadori	Aprilia	22.460
7	Markus Reiterberger	BMW	23.909
8	Alex Lowes	Yamaha	29.893
9	Roman Ramos	Kawasaki	41.910
10	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	48.323
11	Josh Brookes	BMW	53.638
12	Alex de Angelis	Aprilia	56.322
13	Xavi Fores	Ducati	1:03.741
14	Matteo Baiocco	Ducati	1:14.792
15	Matthieu Lussiana	BMW	1:38.485
16	Josh Hook	Kawasaki	+1 Lap
17	Pawel Szkopek	Yamaha	+1 Lap
R	Michael van der Mark	Honda
R	Karel Abraham	BMW
R	Davide Giugliano	Ducati
R	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki
R	Sylvain Guintoli	Yamaha