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Laguna Seca WSBK: Rea takes dominant win from eighth on grid

Reigning World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea scored his ninth win of the season after surging forwards from eighth on the grid to dominate the second race at Laguna Seca.

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Chaz Davies, Ducati Team, Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing
Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing
Lorenzo Savadori, Milwaukee Aprilia
Tom Sykes, Kawasaki Racing
Tom Sykes, Kawasaki Racing
Winner Chaz Davies, Ducati Team, second place Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing, third place Tom Sykes, Kawasaki Racing
Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing, Tom Sykes, Kawasaki Racing

Having finished second to Chaz Davies in Saturday's opener, Rea lined up in the middle of the third row on Sunday, one place behind Kawasaki teammate Tom Sykes, with Davies' Ducati teammate Marco Melandri starting from pole.

Melandri converted his starting position into an early lead, but Sykes shot up to second exiting the Andretti Hairpin for the first time and then slipped underneath Melandri at Turn 4 to grab the lead.

Rea meanwhile was making similarly swift progress, immediately climbing to fourth and then dispatching Xavi Fores and Melandri on the opening lap to make it a Kawasaki 1-2 out front.

But Sykes' lead proved short-lived as he fell prey to Rea on the third lap, again at Turn 4, and quickly fell behind the rapid Ulsterman.

Five laps later, the gap between the Kawasaki pair had grown to 1.4 seconds, by which time Davies had installed himself in third, helped by Melandri running off-track and dropping to ninth on the second lap.

Rea went on to win by 2.887s over Sykes, extending his championship advantage to 59 points with five rounds remaining of the season.

Davies held on to the final podium spot, closing in on but never challenging Sykes in the latter stages, while Melandri recovered from his early excursion to finish fourth ahead of the Barni Ducati of Fores.

Eugene Laverty led home a trio of Aprilias in sixth, the Milwaukee rider beating Ioda's Leandro Mercado and Lorenzo Savadori on the second SMR-run bike.

Yamaha pair Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark completed the top 10, one place ahead of Honda's Stefan Bradl, while World Superbike rookie Jake Gagne once again scored points in 15th position.

Althea BMW suffered a dreadful race as Jordi Torres and Raffaele de Rosa both crashed out. Front row starter Leon Camier was another early casualty as his MV Agusta stopped on track.

Race results:

Pos.#RiderBikeGap
1 1 united_kingdom Jonathan Rea  Kawasaki -
2 66 united_kingdom Tom Sykes  Kawasaki 2.887
3 7 united_kingdom Chaz Davies  Ducati 4.847
4 33 italy Marco Melandri  Ducati 17.159
5 12 spain Xavi Fores  Ducati 22.741
6 50 ireland Eugene Laverty  Aprilia 26.377
7 36 argentina Leandro Mercado  Aprilia 28.475
8 32 italy Lorenzo Savadori  Aprilia 29.718
9 22 united_kingdom Alex Lowes  Yamaha 33.044
10 60 netherlands Michael van der Mark  Yamaha 33.541
11 6 germany Stefan Bradl  Honda 36.756
12 40 spain Roman Ramos  Kawasaki 43.031
13 15 san_marino Alex de Angelis  Kawasaki 47.306
14 88 switzerland Randy Krummenacher  Kawasaki 50.488
15 45  Jake Gagne  Honda 51.093
16 96  Jakub Smrz  Yamaha 59.197
17 37 czech_republic Ondrej Jezek  Kawasaki  
Ret  86 italy Ayrton Badovini  Kawasaki  
Ret  2 united_kingdom Leon Camier  MV Agusta  
Ret 81 spain Jordi Torres  BMW  
Ret 35 italy Raffaele De Rosa  BMW  

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