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Portimao WSBK: Rea wins Superpole race, cuts Redding's lead

Reigning World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea claimed his second successive victory of the Portimao weekend in the Superpole race on Sunday to further cut the deficit to championship leader Scott Redding.

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Kawasaki rider Rea had qualified on pole position for the second race of the weekend, but immediately came under pressure from fellow front-row starter Toprak Razgatlioglu, who made a move on the inside heading into Turn 1.

But Razgatlioglu overshot the corner on his factory Yamaha, allowing Rea to return to the front in no time. 

The two subsequently checked out from the rest of the field, building a one-second gap in the opening lap alone.

Razgatlioglu initially stayed on the tail of Rea for the first five laps, the two appearing to be locked in a tight scrap for victory, before the reigning champion started pulling away from his rival in the second half of the race.

Rea eventually won the race by a comfortable margin of 2.946s, with Razgatlioglu finishing second to repeat his result from Race 1.

Ten Kate Yamaha's Loris Baz made a brilliant start from sixth on the grid to move up to third on Lap 1, and that was the position he finished in at the end of the 10-lap sprint race.

Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes dropped to fifth on the opening lap of the race, but was able to repass the BMW of Tom Sykes to claim fourth at the flag.

Lowes had to fend off the charging Ducati of Scott Redding, who bounced back from a subdued Race 1 showing to move up to sixth on the opening lap of the Superpole race.

However, after dispatching Sykes, he was unable to make a move on Lowes, the Kawasaki rider resisting his advances to retain fourth place.

Sykes eventually finished sixth as the top BMW runner, ahead of the second Yamaha of Michael van der Mark and Go Eleven Ducati of Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

Leon Haslam dragged the factory Honda to ninth at the flag, finishing just a tenth behind Rinaldi, while the top 10 was completed by Garrett Gerloff’s GRT Yamaha.

Alvaro Bautista finished outside the points in 11th on the second of the factory Hondas, while Ducati rider Chaz Davies retired after a collision with BMW’s Eugene Laverty at the hairpin on Lap 3.

Following the Superpole race, Redding continues to lead the riders’ standings, but his advantage to Rea has been reduced to a single point.

Portimao World Superbike - Superpole race results:

Cla # Rider Bike Laps Gap
1 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 10
2 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 10 2.946
3 76 France Loris Baz
Yamaha 10 4.748
4 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 10 5.374
5 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding
Ducati 10 6.605
6 66 United Kingdom Tom Sykes
BMW 10 7.723
7 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
Yamaha 10 9.138
8 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 10 13.675
9 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Honda 10 13.776
10 31 United States Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 10 14.245
11 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Honda 10 14.318
12 64 Italy Federico Caricasulo
Yamaha 10 17.399
13 12 Spain Xavi Fores
Kawasaki 10 19.224
14 36 Argentina Leandro Mercado
Ducati 10 21.240
15 33 Italy Marco Melandri
Ducati 10 33.300
16 20 France Sylvain Barrier
Ducati 10 35.714
17 23 France Christophe Ponsson
Aprilia 10 36.394
18 63 Italy Lorenzo Gabellini
Honda 10 39.361
19 13 Japan Takumi Takahashi
Honda 10 40.736
20 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty
BMW 9
77 Chile Maximilian Scheib
Kawasaki 6
7 United Kingdom Chaz Davies
Ducati 3

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