Jonathan Rea closes title gap after 90th career World Superbike victory in Superpole race at Jerez

The Northern Ireland rider, who finished as the runner-up in Saturday’s opening race behind Ducati’s Scott Redding, turned the tables on his English rival to cut his lead to nine points ahead of the second 20-lap race on Sunday (13:00 BST).

Rea led the 10-lap sprint race all the way on his Kawasaki ZX-10RR to secure his second win of the season, with the 33-year-old also taking victory in the Superpole race at Phillip Island in Australia at the beginning of March.

Redding crossed the line in second, 0.5 seconds behind Rea, who had the luxury of being able to roll off during the final laps.

Rea said: “I knew this was our chance to win this weekend in the Superpole race and that was the goal from the get-go.

“Our bike is working very good with high grip but I never really felt great with the tyre, which was moving around a little bit, but I did everything I could there to claw back some points and I’m looking forward to the next race now.

“It was cool to have a small gap and enjoy the final laps without having to push on the limit and that was really nice, so thanks to my team for giving me such a great bike today.”

Toprak Razgatlioglu, who had been holding a narrow second place ahead of Redding, was forced out of the race after developing an issue with his Pata Yamaha. His team-mate, Dutchman Michael van der Mark, finished on the podium in third ahead of Loris Baz (Ten Kate Yamaha), Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Ducati) and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad). Sykes’ team-mate, Eugene Laverty, finished 13th.

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