Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea made WorldSBK history at Magny-Cours as the first rider to ever take three titles on the bounce with a dominant, lights-to-flag win in race one, crossing the line with a 16s advantage over Marco Melandri to take his 50th win with Tom Sykes completing the podium.
“It’s incredible. I dreamed of one world championship as a kid, especially with all the hard work and sacrifice from my parents. I have no words really. I just want to thank all the support at home and my team,” said Rea in parc ferme.
“I wanted to win this from the middle of the podium. We had to get the job done in the trickiest of conditions. I’m so proud of us all, we are such a tight-knit family and they are all in.”
Rea turned the weekend’s opening race into a display of wet weather riding, rocketing off the line to pull a 2.4s gap on lap one. The Isle of Man resident was easily able to extend his lead, upping it to 3.8s on lap two, 5.4s on lap three and 6.8s on lap four to build an unassailable advantage while Sykes made it past Davies to secure second place and strengthen his grip on second place.
From lap three, Davies began to run into trouble, looking like he had absolutely no rear grip at all. The Aruba Ducati man used Pirelli’s development wet and was four seconds a lap slower than Rea at the halfway mark.
Team-mate Melandri had to fight his way through the pack but set the fastest lap of the race with seven to run to fend off an attack from MV Agusta’s Leon Camier, who is still searching for his first podium with the Italian manufacturer.
The Italian upped his pace again with five left to go and caught Sykes hand over fist, cutting the gap to 2.3s, while Camier was also lapping quicker than the Huddersfield man. Melandri put a move on Sykes with two to run and the pair touched with sparks flying from the Ducati man’s front disc as it rubbed in the Kawasaki’s exhaust.
Melandri tried the same move on the final lap and made it stick this time. However, Sykes was back past three corners later. Melandri had other ideas however and made his last pass to bag second place with a three-tenths advantage.
Camier looked to have the pace to challenge for the podium but just ran out of steam. He was catching Sykes in the final laps but just ran out of time to claim a rostrum spot. Alex Lowes claimed fifth with Eugene Laverty coming through to pass Mercado for sixth.
Red Bull Honda’s Davide Giugliano ended in eighth place with Michael Van Der Mark in front of Davies. Davies crossed the line in tenth after being passed by Giugliano and Laverty in the closing stages. Van Der Mark, who crashed on lap two on the exit of Adelaide, also passed Davies with relative ease as his problems got worse.
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