Assen WSBK: Rea holds on from Bautista for victory

Kawasaki rider Rea beat Bautista by a scant 0.103 seconds to retake the championship lead from the Ducati rider, with poleman Razgatlioglu dropping away from the lead battle in the closing stages.

Razgatlioglu converted pole into an early lead, but Rea soon picked off the reigning champion's Yamaha teammate Andrea Locatelli to move into second.

On lap three of 21, Rea dived up the inside of the final chicane to take the lead, seemingly controlling the pace thereafter with a six-rider train forming at the head of the pack featuring the works Yamaha, Kawasaki and Ducati riders.

Bautista was fifth behind the second Kawasaki of Alex Lowes at this point, but managed to find a way by Lowes and Locatelli on consecutive laps before Lowes suffered a race-ending mechanical problem on lap 11.

With Locatelli dropping away from the lead pack, the race became a three-way battle from this point onwards, with Razgatlioglu managing to take the lead back from Rea at the end of lap 13.

But the Turkish rider couldn't escape at the head of the field, and Rea was able to regain the advantage with a daring late-braking move into Turn 1 on lap 16.

Bautista passed Razgatlioglu several corners later to take over as Rea's main challenger, and on lap 18 the Spanish rider briefly moved ahead with a pass at the high-speed Ruskenhoek chicane - only for Rea to reply immediately and go back around the outside at the Stekkenwal right-hander.

Once back ahead, Rea resisted Bautista's advances to secure his 16th career WSBK win at Assen.

Razgatlioglu had to settle for third, a second back from the leaders, with teammate Locatelli coming home a lonely fourth nine seconds further behind.

Following a crash for Ducati's Michael Ruben Rinaldi in the closing stages, Iker Lecuona took his best WSBK finish so far in fifth for Honda, followed by top BMW rider Loris Baz and Philipp Oettl on the satellite GoEleven Ducati.

Garrett Gerloff dropped back in the early stages aboard the GRT Yamaha, having gone for a harder rear tyre option than the SCX compound favoured by the majority, but picked off Scott Redding on the final lap for eighth.

Redding still came away with his best result as a BMW rider in ninth, while teammate Michael van der Mark was 13th in his first race back from injury.

Puccetti Kawasaki man Lucas Mahias picked up the final point in 15th despite a last-lap crash, just holding off Pedercini Kawasaki's Leon Haslam, called up late as a replacement for Loris Cresson this weekend.

Assen WSBK - Race 1 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Gap
1	65	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki
2	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	0.103
3	1	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	1.014
4	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	9.712
5	7	Iker Lecuona	Honda	17.451
6	76	Loris Baz	BMW	17.983
7	5	Philipp Oettl	Ducati	22.002
8	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	24.545
9	45	Scott Redding	BMW	25.118
10	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	26.938
11	97	Xavi Vierge	Honda	35.566
12	23	Christophe Ponsson	Yamaha	41.901
13	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	41.967
14	2	Roberto Tamburini	Yamaha	42.014
15	44	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	45.699
16	91	Leon Haslam	Kawasaki	45.882
17	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	45.972
18	29	Luca Bernardi	Ducati	47.975
19	36	Leandro Mercado	Honda	48.144
20	35	Hafizh Syahrin	Honda	58.169
21	52	Oliver Konig	Kawasaki
	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati
	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki
	16	Gabriele Ruiu	BMW
View full results