Jonathan Rea opens 36-point gap in World Superbike Championship after race two victory at Aragon

Earlier, Rea’s unbeaten run of Superpole race wins this year was brought to an end by Aruba.it Ducati rider Scott Redding, who won the 10-lap sprint showdown by 0.9s as he made amends for a costly crash in Saturday’s opening race at the Spanish circuit, which allowed Rea – who finished second behind Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team Go Eleven Ducati) – to steal a march in the title battle.

The five-time champion capped a rewarding weekend at the Teruel round of the championship in perfect style with a hard-fought victory in race two, when Rea prevailed in a thrilling battle with Italian rider Rinaldi to seal his eighth win of the season.

“It was a great day. In the Superpole race I just didn’t have the opportunity with Scott in the early laps, he made a really good rhythm and I couldn’t put my head down,” said Rea.

“But in this race I just tried to go and do my rhythm; I got aggressive in a few laps, but it was fun, all fine, and with Michael at the end, he was setting a good rhythm.

“He was strong in some sectors but I was strong especially in corner entry and initial traction, but I couldn’t find an opportunity,” Rea added.

“But he ran a little bit wide at T5 and I capitalised on the exit, so from there I put my head down and it was an incredible day for the Kawasaki Racing Team and all our sponsors. I’ll enjoy a beer tonight!”

Pole man Rea took the lead but was passed on the first lap by Redding, who was unable to pull away. The title rivals became locked in a fight as they exchanged hard moves at the front, with the warring duo running wide on lap six at Turn 8.

This allowed race one winner Rinaldi to capitalise and he seized the lead, with Rea slipping to third. However, the 33-year-old quickly regrouped and passed Redding to go second before setting his sights on Rinaldi.

With Redding dropping back, Rea was snapping at Rinaldi’s heels and he finally forged ahead with three laps to go, albeit surviving a huge moment when he almost high-sided after running wide as he made an attempt for the lead.

Rea won handily by 1.2s at the finish for his 96th career WSBK victory with Redding taking third, four seconds behind runner-up Rinaldi.

Leon Haslam (Team HRC), Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha) were the top six.

Eugene Laverty was eighth. The BMW Motorrad rider was ninth in race one and 14th in the Superpole race.

World Supersport 300 rookie Eunan McGlinchey finished ninth in the Last Chance qualifying race on the Team 109 Kawasaki on Saturday.

Round six of the championship will take place at Catalunya in Barcelona from September 18-20, which will be the first time the long-established MotoGP venue has been part of the World Superbike calendar.

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