Race report
World Superbike Aragon
Aragon WSBK: Rea dominates Superpole race
Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea closed in on Scott Redding’s championship lead with an easy win over the Ducati rider in the Aragon World Superbike Superpole race.
Lewis Duncan
Edited: Aug 31, 2020, 10:18 AM
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Rea was jumped off the line by Ten Kate Yamaha man Loris Baz, though a mistake for the Frenchman at the first corner allowed the reigning world champion to come through.
Immediately, Rea began to build up an advantage over Baz, whose pace quickly started to fade, with the Kawasaki close to a second clear by lap four.
Rea’s lead continued to climb over the next few laps, with it standing at over two seconds at half distance.
Baz came under attack from Redding on the Ducati on the fifth tour, with the reigning British Superbike champion using the power of the V4 R Panigale to blast past the Yamaha rider into Turn 1 at the start of lap six.
But it was too late to do anything about Rea, who cruised to an unbeaten streak of Superpole race wins in 2020 by 2.6s.
After Redding’s victory in Race 1 on Saturday put him back into the championship lead, Rea has cut the gap down to just one point ahead of this afternoon’s second feature contest.
Michael van der Mark scythed up the inside of Yamaha stablemate Baz into Turn 7 on lap seven, and though he was snapping at Redding’s heels in the early stages, the Dutchman was unable to close the gap.
Securing third, van der Mark completes the front row for Race 2, with Rea and Redding set to launch alongside him.
Alvaro Bautista carved through from seventh on the grid on the Honda to take his best result of the season in fourth, putting him a good position for a podium challenge this afternoon.
Bautista came through on Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes at the start of lap nine, with Race 1 podium finisher Chaz Davies getting by late on to complete the top five.
Lowes ended up sixth ahead of an under-the-weather Toprak Razgatlioglu on the works Yamaha, with Michael Ruben Rinaldi on the Go Eleven Ducati and Baz rounding out the top nine spots on the grid for Race 2.
Tom Sykes recovered to 15th on the BMW after running off at Turn 8 on the opening lap.
The Briton bounced over the gravel trap and re-joined in the middle of Turn 9, with Leandro Mercado powerless to avoid him on the Motocorsa Ducati.
Mercado had to be taken to the medical centre for checks having been stretchered off track, while the incident has been placed under investigation.
Race results:
Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap 1 1 Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 18'22.815 2 45 Scott Redding
Ducati 18'25.450 2.635 3 60 Michael van der Mark
Yamaha 18'26.856 4.041 4 19 Alvaro Bautista
Honda 18'28.375 5.560 5 7 Chaz Davies
Ducati 18'28.791 5.976 6 22 Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 18'29.047 6.232 7 54 Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 18'29.909 7.094 8 21 Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 18'30.404 7.589 9 76 Loris Baz
Yamaha 18'30.724 7.909 10 91 Leon Haslam
Honda 18'34.214 11.399 11 64 Federico Caricasulo
Yamaha 18'36.019 13.204 12 12 Xavi Fores
Kawasaki 18'37.245 14.430 13 31 Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 18'38.911 16.096 14 77 Maximilian Scheib
Kawasaki 18'39.081 16.266 15 66 Tom Sykes
BMW 18'40.773 17.958 16 50 Eugene Laverty
BMW 18'46.389 23.574 17 33 Marco Melandri
Ducati 18'46.984 24.169 18 20 Sylvain Barrier
Ducati 18'48.961 26.146 19 40 Roman Ramos
Kawasaki 18'49.605 26.790 20 13 Takumi Takahashi
Honda 19'02.614 39.799 21 63 Lorenzo Gabellini
Honda 19'31.773 1'08.958 23 Christophe Ponsson
Aprilia 19'21.967 59.152 36 Leandro Mercado
Ducati View full results
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