Relentless Jonathan Rea completes double at Aragon to reclaim World Superbike title lead

The Kawasaki rider followed up his dominant victory in the morning’s Superpole sprint race with another superb effort in the final full-distance race to complete a double at the Spanish circuit, with Rea now 10 points clear of Ducati’s Scott Redding in the title battle.

The 33-year-old took the lead from pole position and stayed there until a mistake four laps from the end at the final sweeping left-hand corner allowed Chaz Davies into the lead.

Rea, though, hit straight back and once he got his nose in front again, he opened a cushion of around half-a-second, which he extended over the final four laps to secure a hard-fought victory by 1.2 seconds.

Davies claimed the runner-up spot on the Aruba.it Ducati ahead of Alvaro Bautista, who gave the new Team HRC Honda Fireblade a debut World Superbike rostrum finish in third.

Redding, who won Saturday’s opening race, could only finish in fourth as the Gloucester man lost ground in the championship to key rival Rea.

Speaking afterwards, a delighted Rea said he surprised himself with his pace throughout the race, when he benefitted from a different front tyre compound.

“I can’t believe the pace and honestly, I didn’t expect that. We kept the bike the same as yesterday, but changed the front tyre compound instead of a harder one and in these hot temperatures, it seemed to work a little bit better,” Rea said.

“At the end, Chaz was coming, coming, coming and I made a massive mistake on the last corner. I went into fourth gear and I had no engine braking to stop me.

“I thought ‘I’m going to go down’ but I wasted a position and Chaz came through. I needed to go straight back past and I put my head down and had a little bit extra.

“Thank you so much to my team for believing in the bike and keeping it the same, and just pushing me to be better. I definitely found something in that race so I’m looking forward to a few days’ rest and then back at it again next weekend.”

Michael Ruben Rinaldi made it three Ducati machines in the top five as he finished fifth after passing Pata Yamaha’s Michael van der Mark.

Leon Haslam finished seventh on the second of the Team HRC factory Hondas ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha). Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and American Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) finalised the top 10, with only one second covering the quartet.

Tom Sykes was the top BMW rider in 12th place, with team-mate Eugene Laverty in 14th after a miserable weekend for Shaun Muir’s factory squad.

Earlier, Rea maintained his 100 per-cent record in the Superpole Sprint races this season as he clinched his fourth win in the shorter format race by 0.2s from Redding.

Michael van der Mark secured his first rostrum finish at Motorland Aragon in third, with Bautista, Davies and Lowes the first six.

In the World Supersport 300 Championship, newcomer Eunan McGlinchey from Aghadowey was 13th in Saturday’s Last Chance qualifier race, missing out on securing his place in the two feature races.

Aragon also hosts round five of the championship next weekend (September 4-6).

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