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Laguna Seca WSBK: Rea doubles up with dominant win

Jonathan Rea effortlessly completed the US World Superbike double after claiming his 62nd career win in Race 2 at Laguna Seca.

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Eugene Laverty made the most of pole position and took the holeshot into the first corner, while Marco Melandri slotted into second ahead of Michael van der Mark.

Rea made up three spots from ninth at the start, and carved past his Kawasaki teammate Tom Sykes at the final corner to take fifth, while Laverty extended his lead to seven tenths.

Melandri succumbed to the pressure of van der Mark, and the Ducati rider soon found himself staring at the rear of Rea's ZX-10RR in fourth after making a mistake exiting Turn 10 on lap two.

Rea made light work of van der Mark at the last turn on lap four, and set about to close in on Laverty, who by now had opened up a lead of 1.3s on his Milwaukee Aprilia.

Laverty's lead was rapidly demolished by Rea, and it stood at just two tenths of a second at the start of lap eight.

Rea lined up the Aprilia man in front of him, and successfully executed a lunge at Turn 3 to snatch the lead, while Chaz Davies worked his way ahead of van der Mark two laps later for third.

Once in front, Rea was able to ease away from the rest of the pack, his lead 1.6s by lap 12, and he gradually extended it to over five seconds to cruise to his second win of the weekend.

Davies was able to reel in Laverty once free of van der Mark, and moved into second with nine laps remaining, which he held onto through to the chequered flag to secure back-to-back podiums on his Ducati in America.

Laverty was quickly caught by the warring Yamaha duo of van der Mark and Alex Lowes, but their scrapping allowed the Ulsterman to remain in third to claim his first WSBK podium since 2014 and Aprilia's first since '15.

Lowes launched a daring raid on his teammate at Turn 1 with three laps to go, but van der Mark just held sway.

The Briton tried another brave move on van der Mark on the run into the Corkscrew, and pulled it off to snatch fourth. Barni Racing's Xavi Fores trailed the Yamaha duo home in sixth.

Jordi Torres was seventh on his MV Agusta, while Sykes ended his 250th race start a lowly eighth. Jake Gagne ended his home round with a career-best ninth, with Loris Baz completing the top 10.

Gagne's Honda teammate Leon Camier crashed early on at the Andretti Hairpin, but remounted and got his Fireblade home in 13th ahead of rookie Karel Hanika.

Melandri fell out of contention on lap four at Turn 5, with Lorenzo Savadori and PJ Jacobsen joining him on the sidelines.

Race 2 results

ClaRiderBikeLapsGap
1 united_kingdom Jonathan Rea  Kawasaki 25  
2 united_kingdom Chaz Davies  Ducati 25 5.099
3 ireland Eugene Laverty  Aprilia 25 6.711
4 united_kingdom Alex Lowes  Yamaha 25 8.011
5 netherlands Michael van der Mark  Yamaha 25 9.746
6 spain Xavi Fores  Ducati 25 14.791
7 spain Jordi Torres  MV Agusta 25 16.711
8 united_kingdom Tom Sykes  Kawasaki 25 17.284
9 united_states Jake Gagne  Honda 25 35.421
10 france Loris Baz  BMW 25 39.802
11 argentina Leandro Mercado  Kawasaki 25 42.946
12 spain Roman Ramos  Kawasaki 25 43.437
13 united_kingdom Leon Camier  Honda 25 44.563
14 czech_republic Karel Hanika  Yamaha 25 47.257
15 colombia Yonny Hernandez  Kawasaki 25 53.415
16 united_states  Josh Herrin Yamaha 25 58.107
Ret united_states PJ Jacobsen  Honda 16 9 laps
Ret  italy Lorenzo Savadori  Aprilia 6 19 laps
Ret  italy Marco Melandri  Ducati 3 22 laps

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