Jonathan Rea fifth as Alvaro Bautista wraps up Donington Park World Superbike double to extend title lead

Toprak Razgatlioglu claimed second place on the Pata Yamaha with Italy’s Danilo Petrucci – a former MotoGP race winner – earning his first podium finish in the series in third on the Barni Ducati.

Northern Ireland rider Rea had chalked up a record 250th podium in Saturday’s opening race behind Bautista and Razgatlioglu.

He finished third in the Superpole race on Sunday, when Razgatlioglu won to end Bautista’s run of 11 successive victories, but Rea was outside the top three in the final race of the weekend at the Leicestershire circuit.

Race two was restarted following a three-rider crash on the opening lap when Briton Tom Sykes had a massive high-side at Coppice.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Ducati) and Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) were caught up in the frightening incident.

Baz escaped relatively unscathed but did not take part in the restart, while Sykes was reported to have sustained broken ribs and an ankle injury.

No further update was provided on Rinaldi, who appeared to have hurt his right arm in the crash, although all three riders involved were conscious after the crash.

When the action resumed again, Bautista stormed into the lead from the front row before Rea made a pass into the Old Hairpin.

Bautista was able to cut back on the inside of the Kawasaki rider, who then dropped to third when he ran wide at the Melbourne Loop, leaving the door open for Razgatlioglu.

On lap two, Razgatlioglu dived under Bautista at the Melbourne Loop and stood the Ducati rider up, with Rea capitalising to move into second.

The order remained unchanged until Bautista overtook Rea at the Fogarty Esses on lap 10 and set his sights on race leader Razgatlioglu.

The reigning champion made his move for the lead into Redgate on lap 13 but Razgatlioglu lined up a pass on the brakes at the Old Hairpin to nose ahead once more.

However, Bautista made a similar pass into Redgate on the next lap and this time the 38-year-old denied Razgatlioglu the chance to attack, putting his head down and opening a slight gap on the Panigale V4R.

Rea was demoted to fourth on lap 18 when Petrucci overtook the six-time champion at the Fogarty Esses for third.

Scott Redding was now making up ground on the factory BMW and was into fifth after passing Rea’s Kawasaki team-mate Alex Lowes.

Redding began to hunt down Rea and picked up another place when he passed the Ulsterman into the Melbourne Loop on lap 19.

Rea briefly reclaimed the position on the next lap at the Fogarty Esses, but Redding out-braked his rival at the Melbourne Loop once again and went on to consolidate fourth.

Bautista won by 2.650s from Razgatlioglu, who was 5.2s ahead of Petrucci.

It was Bautista’s 16th victory in 18 races this season as he maintained his record of winning every full-length race so far in 2023.

He is now 93 points ahead of Razgatlioglu after the first six rounds of the championship, with Imola in Italy up next from July 14-16.

Rea remains fourth in the standings, 194 points behind Bautista, although he has closed the gap on Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha) in third to 12 points.

Alex Lowes finished sixth ahead of Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Ducati) and Locatelli.

Bradley Ray, the 2022 British Superbike champion, finished in the points in 13th on the Motoxracing Yamaha.