Rea sprints clear for WorldSBK Superpole Race win in Portimao
WorldSBK Portimao - Superpole Race Results
Jonathan Rea has moved onto the cusp of the 2020 WorldSBK Championship lead with another resounding victory in the Superpole Race at Portimao.
The defending champion racked up his fourth WorldSBK win of the season – three of which have now come in the shorter 10 lap sprint – with a comfortable success over Toprak Razgatlioglu and Loris Baz.
After winning race one by more than five seconds, Rea was again in imperious form today as he rebuffed a deep pass into the first turn by Razgatlioglu by cutting back through on the run into the turn two right-hander.
Razgatlioglu gave chase over the initial laps before Rea eased away from the Yamaha rider, the five-time WorldSBK Champion still rounding out a clear three second winner of the Turk to place him just a single point shy of Scott Redding in the title fight.
In third there was joy for Baz, who scored his first podium since returning to WorldSBK from MotoGP in 2018 with an accomplished ride two seconds behind his Yamaha counterpart. The first time he has stood on the WorldSBK rostrum since Qatar 2014, it is also Ten Kate Racing’s first top three finish since switching to Yamaha machinery and its first in WorldSBK since Magny-Cours 2016 when it ran with Honda.
Alex Lowes notched up solid points for fourth on the second of the factory Kawasakis, ahead of a leery Redding, the championship leader progressing from eighth to fifth but doing so with a slightly erratic performance as he struggles to get the best from the Ducati.
Tom Sykes ran as high as fourth before settling for sixth on the BMW, ahead of race one podium winner Michael van der Mark, who lost ground at the start en route to seventh.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi slid down the order initially before clawing back to eighth position, just edging out top Honda rider Leon Haslam in ninth to complete the refreshed front three rows for Race 2.
Garrett Gerloff completed the top ten on the GRT Yamaha, ahead of Alvaro Bautista, with Federico Caricasulo, Xavi Fores, Leandro Mercado and Marco Melandri completing the top 15.
Elsewhere, Chaz Davies failed to finish after getting tangled up in a collision with Eugene Laverty at Turn 5, the pair left with work to do in Race 2 to make up ground.
