Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea added the Portimao WorldSBK Superpole race win to his Portugese honours tally this morning, beating Toprak Razgatlioglu by two seconds after ten laps.
The reigning champion was virtually unchallenged for the encounter after a first corner skirmish, and he and the Yamaha man left Alex Lowes, Scott Redding and Loris Baz to fight for the final podium spot which went to the Frenchman.
Rea had started from pole position but faced early pressure from Razgatlioglu withthe Turkish rider initially passing Rea into turn one but ran wide, allowing Rea to cut back.
Rea would go on to build a gap to Razgatlioglu, extending his lead with every lap of the 10-lap race. Team-mate Alex Lowes will start from the second row after he secured a fourth-place finish, fending off an early challenge from Redding as he tried to pass both Redding and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) at Turn 1 on Lap 3; Lowes holding on to fourth while Sykes moved down to sixth place.
Yamaha's Michael van der Mark secured a third row start with seventh, finishing more than four seconds clear of Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Leon Haslam (Team HRC) who were battling hard for eighth place throughout the latter stages of the race, with Rinaldi holding on to eighth and Haslam finishing in ninth to claim the last points-paying position of the race.
There was an incident between Chaz Davies and brother in law Eugene Laverty on lap two at the turn five hairpin, with both riders falling down the order but able to continue; Davies retiring from the race a few laps later.
Maximilian Scheib (ORELAC Racing VerdNatura) and Marco Melandri (Barni Racing Team) also both ran off the track at turn three with a handful of laps to go but were able to continue at that point.
Championship points
Redding 112
Rea 111
Razgatlioglu 95
Lowes 91
Van der Mark 66
