World Superbike star Jonathan Rea hit with irresponsible riding penalties at Most in Czech Republic after first-lap incident with Alvaro Bautista

The Pata Maxus Yamaha rider and Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Ducati) collided at the start of the race at Turn 1, with Bautista tumbling into Honda’s Xavi Vierge.

The two Spaniards were ruled out of the race, with Vierge taken to the medical centre with a suspected fracture of the tarsus (ankle area) in his right foot.

Rea, who was left in fifth place, eventually finished the 22-lap race in 13th place after serving his penalties, scoring points for the second time this weekend after he was 10th in Saturday’s first race.

The 38-year-old was 10th in the Superpole sprint race on Sunday morning, narrowly missing out on a points-scoring result.

Rea was competing in only his second race weekend of 2025 after he missed the first three rounds through injury, suffering fractures to his left foot in a crash during testing at Phillip Island in Australia at the end of February.

Reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu claimed a double, winning the Superpole race following a comfortable victory in the opener on Saturday.

The ROKiT BMW Motorrad rider was 1.9s ahead of championship leader Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati) in the sprint race, with Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Ducati) completing the top three in a repeat of Saturday’s result.

However, in a dramatic conclusion to the fifth round, Italian Bulega denied Razgatlioglu a treble, drafting past the BMW star on the blast to the line on the last lap to snatch victory by only 0.027s, with Petrucci again third, over 16 seconds behind.

It was a significant result for Bulega at one of Razgatlioglu’s strongest circuits and comes after the Ducati rider was left battered and bruised following a massive high-side on Friday in free practice.

Over the course of the weekend, Bulega – the title runner-up in 2024 in his maiden WSBK season – only lost three points to Razgatlioglu, who trails his title rival by 31 points.

Briton Sam Lowes (Marc VDS Racing Ducati) twice finished fourth in Sunday’s races.

There is now a break of almost four weeks until round six at Misano in Italy, which takes place from June 13-15.