First-year WorldSBK rider Scott Redding won his first race in this category with a well-calculated late block pass on reigning champion Jonathan Rea that gave him a lead with five full laps to go.

Running on track temperatures of 60°C, Redding sat behind the leading competitors despite starting from pole position, passing first the Yamaha of Toprak Razgatlioglu and then finally Kawasaki’s Rea.

Redding said that the thing that really finished him off in the hot weather was the podium ceremony. He was obviously pleased with his day’s hot work but also a little underwhelmed to make such a landmark performance in front of no fans whatsoever.

“First pole position and first race win, in this condition, I have to be happy with that,” said Redding at the track. “I believed I could do it but I had a little bit of doubt for the hot weather.

“Fuck me, that’s hot, that’s all I can say. It is not normal but at least at the end of all that suffering I won the race, which is really good for my confidence and it makes me believe in myself that I can also do it in this condition, under that pressure. It was a really nice race in the end.

“It’s just the tyres cannot really handle the temperature and the front is moving a lot. I had a couple of big slides. I think everyone is in a similar situation. We have to do it again tomorrow.”

Redding said of his overall race strategy, “We all know Johnny is strong in the start, that is his strong point, and I was just behind Toprak. I did not want to start to fight with him, because you fight with Toprak and Johnny is gone. So I was just waiting, saying ‘Toprak don’t let him go,’ and he was going, getting it back, but Johnny was slowly edging away on a lap.

“Then I passed Toprak on turn one and then he passed me back outside on the brakes, and I was thinking what the fuck is that!” The feeling I had with the front I could not brake any later. Then I said OK, fuck I need to go because Johnny is going I need to go and make the overtake. I managed to make it stick and then I pushed to stay with Johnny. I stayed a few laps there, which was good, but then I thought OK, maybe I have the pace to go but directly I felt shit with the front tyre.

“I had a big slide in turn four, and eight, and I thought do I slow the pace or do I go? I tried to hold it then I saw that I had started to take a bit of a gap from the other guys. Like this I was thinking the other guys are also suffering so I just kept continuing the lap time the best I could. I managed to have a little bit to the end.”

It was put to Redding that it was the first time he had led a championship for six years, to which he replied “Last year…!” speaking, of course, about his winning BSB series with Ducati.

Of his six-year wait to lead a World Championship, he said. “Fuck, it has been a long time, but it doesn’t change anything. I have the same mindset of last year. If you are leading it or you are second it doesn’t matter.

“There are many races to go and what is important is to be first at the end of the championship. I don’t look at it any different. My goal is to go race by race and get the most points I can in each single race.

“That is the goal I need to keep in my mind. I do not want to start stressing about the championship for the moment. It is short but it is still long, and we need to see. We have two races in this championship tomorrow and we will see how it goes.”

Redding made a definitive block pass on Rea to pass him, at the turn six hairpin, and both ran a little wide, allowing the following riders to make up ground again. It was clean enough for Redding and Rea, as it transpired.

“Jonathan was going a little bit wide and I thought if I get close enough in the braking when he goes wide I can go inside, but when he braked he braked really hard in the first part of braking and I got there.

“I was just on the limit of the tyre, trying to stop, stop, stop, and I thought OK, this is impossible. There were about four times I went long in the race, so it was not a strong point for me, but I needed to try to overtake.

“It was not really too dirty because I stayed on my line, I did not go across, and the same move I did on Toprak. I was happy I could overtake but it wasn’t easy.”