Scott Redding’s win in the second WorldSBK feature race at Magny-Cours played a huge part in the 2020 title fight going down to the wire at Estoril in two weekends’ time.
The works Ducati man knew he had to win the race in order to stand any chance of preventing Jonathan Rea from taking a sixth title and not only that but the Irishman would have to finish off the podium. And that’s exactly what happened.
On a drying track, Redding summoned up a gutsy front-running race win to keep the championship alive until the final round, securing his fifth victory of the 2020 season in the process.
Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) went from fourth to third early on using a standard rear Pirelli wet, while everyone else used the development softer wet option. He moved up to second and stayed there to the end.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) had possibly the most important third place of his career, as keeping Rea down in fourth in the final Magny race ensured that Jonathan would exit France 59 point ahead of Scott – not quite enough to make the crown certain at this round.
Fifth today was the top official Yamaha of Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) with Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team GoEleven Ducati) sixth. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) was second early on but soon dropped to a final seventh.
Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha), Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) completed the top ten. Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) was top Honda rider in 13th place.
