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Imola WSBK: Rea wins again after Davies error

Reigning World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea took his second victory in succession at Imola, taking advantage of an early error from Chaz Davies in the Superpole race.

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team, Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Team

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team, Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Team

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Rea, who had snapped Alvaro Bautista's 11-race winning streak on Saturday, challenged poleman Davies for the lead immediately after the start of the second race of the weekend.

He hounded Davies through the first few corners and lunged down the inside of the Ducati into the Tosa left-hander, only to run wide, handing Davies the lead and some breathing room.

Yet the Welshman then overshot his braking into the final chicane, badly compromising his run through the corner and dropping behind both Rea and teammate Bautista.

The trio ran in formation for the opening half of the short race, but Rea began to make his escape from Bautista around the four-lap mark.

A couple of laps later, Davies capitalised on Bautista running wide into Rivazza to overtake the championship leader for second.

But Rea was already a second-and-a-half clear by that point, and ultimately arrived at the chequered flag two seconds clear of the Ducati man.

Bautista dropped to seven seconds off Rea at the finish, while Yamaha's Michael van der Mark picked up a second consecutive fourth-place finish, halting Toprak Razgatlioglu's spirited early charge.

Puccetti Kawasaki rider Razgatlioglu then dramatically slowed in the second half, slipping back to seventh place behind the other Yamaha of Alex Lowes and Rea's teammate Leon Haslam.

Tom Sykes started from the pitlane after missing the warm-up lap, but dragged his BMW back up to eighth place at the finish, narrowly beating Pedercini Kawasaki rider Jordi Torres.

Sykes' teammate Reiterberger was 10th, just ahead of Go Eleven Ducati stand-in Tommy Bridewell and Ducati wildcard Lorenzo Zanetti.

Race results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 17'45.405
2 7 United Kingdom Chaz Davies
Ducati 17'47.546 2.141
3 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Ducati 17'52.269 6.864
4 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
Yamaha 17'56.222 10.817
5 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Yamaha 17'59.617 14.212
6 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Kawasaki 17'59.927 14.522
7 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Kawasaki 18'05.889 20.484
8 66 United Kingdom Tom Sykes
BMW 18'06.169 20.764
9 81 Spain Jordi Torres
Kawasaki 18'06.362 20.957
10 28 Germany Markus Reiterberger
BMW 18'11.322 25.917
11 46 United Kingdom Tommy Bridewell
Ducati 18'12.225 26.820
12 87 Italy Lorenzo Zanetti
Ducati 18'17.103 31.698
13 11 Germany Sandro Cortese
Yamaha 18'18.121 32.716
14 80 Spain Hector Barbera
Kawasaki 18'19.502 34.097
15 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 18'21.454 36.049
16 23 Japan Ryuichi Kiyonari
Honda 18'21.776 36.371
17 33 Italy Marco Melandri
Yamaha 18'26.078 40.673
18 52 Italy Alessandro Del Bianco
Honda 18'27.811 42.406

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