Reigning WorldSBK Champion Jonathan Rea was forced to bang bars and ride the wheels off his Kawasaki to take the second feature race win at Aragon #2 this afternoon.
Rea scrapped it out with first Scott Redding and then Michael Rinaldi to take 25 points and was the only one of the three not to use the soft SCX rear Pirelli tyre.
The Kawasaki man made his late push after passing Rinaldi with two to go, taking a 1.244 second margin of victory and a 36 point championship lead over early challenger Redding. This was Rea’s 96th career race win.
Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) had a strong ride on the Honda for fourth place, after some other top runners like Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda) crashed out.
Gastroenteritis-struck Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) was a gritty fifth, just under five seconds clear of Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team).
Toprak Razgatlioglu, his team-mate, was another second down in seventh place.
All five Yamahas covered the last five places in the top ten in this race, with Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha), Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha) and Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) in one loose group at the flag, followed by lone BMW finisher, Eugene Laverty in 11th.
In the championship Rea now has 243, Redding 207, Razgatlioglu 147 and Davies 141.
