Aruba.it Ducati’s Scott Redding overcame pole-man Jonathan Rea to win the first ever Pirelli WorldSBK race at Spain’s Navarra Circuit on Saturday.
Despite leaving the factory Ducati team for BMW in 2022, Redding rode to an assured and clear Race One win on his V4R.
As expected, Rea took command from the early laps with Redding instantly in hot pursuit. Toprak Razgatlioglu struggling to get passed Andrea Locatelli as the race unfolded.
The Ducati man was challenging for position by lap four, with Redding succeeding next time around and pushing hard as he looked to break free of the Ninja while Razgatlioglu dispatched his Pata Yamaha teammate three laps later.
The Kawasaki Racing rider tried to compete but Redding was simply faster over all 23-laps today. Rea experiencing two major moments trying to keep up the leading pace before appearing to settle for second.
Having taken time to get past Locatelli, Razgatlioglu was an eventual clear third, albeit almost six seconds from the race win, with his teammate impressive one again, and fastest overall all in FP3 in the morning, fourth, seven seconds up on fifth placed rider Alex Lowes (KRT).
Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was sixth but 20 seconds behind Redding, at this tight and technical circuit, laden with bumps in several key corners.
Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) placed seventh.
Axel Bassani (MotoCorsa Racing Ducati) held off the slow starting Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) for eighth, after coming under late pressure from the American rider. The second factory Ducati, of Michael Ruben Rinaldi was tenth, but almost 30 seconds from Redding.
