Reigning WorldSBK king Jonathan Rea extended his championship lead this afternoon at Magny-Cours after splashing to his 98th win.
The Kawasaki rider fended off a challenge from Garrett Gerloff and Loris Baz to finish a further 14 points ahead of Scott Redding and it is now almost nailed on he will wrap up a sixth title tomorrow.
`Third was Rea’s team-mate Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) in a lonely podium place after some fights with Yamaha riders in the early laps.
In fully wet conditions Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was fourth, all on his own, but the battle for fifth finally had three contenders.
Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) crashed in a huge highside having just re-passed Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and after the ensuing melee Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) made the most of the opportunity to finish fifth, having been only just inside the top ten at the beginning.
With Razgatlioglu sixth, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team GoEleven Ducati) was seventh; Xavi Fores (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) eighth. Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) was another faller with 15 of 21 to go, losing a clear fourth place finish and ending up ninth. Tenth was Leandro Mercado (MotoCorsa Racing Ducati).
The ‘magic’ of a BMW 1-2 from Superpole ended early in race one when a turn one incident after Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) went wide - after a possible contact with Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) - and in touching Eugene Laverty as he went wide, they both fell and were unable to restart. Gerloff was to crash from a top three position on lap eight of 21, while exiting T7 on the gas.
Rea enters the final Magny Cours raceday on Sunday with a lead that has grown to 65 points.
