Brno WSBK: Rea moves clear of Fogarty with 60th win
Jonathan Rea cruised to a historic 60th career World Superbike victory in Brno to become the leading rider on the all-time winners list, surpassing Carl Fogarty.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The race was red-flagged at the start of the fourth lap, after a crash for Michael Ruben Rinaldi at Turn 5 on the previous tour punctured an air fence.
A 20-minute delay followed while the air fence was repaired, while there was a further delay due to a fault with the start lights before the race got underway again.
When it did, it was Rea's Kawasaki teammate Tom Sykes who got the holeshot from pole.
However, Rea was able to draw alongside Sykes on the run into Turn 3, and execute a move for the lead, before easing away to a near-second lead by the end of the opening lap.
Rea continued to ease away out front, while Ducati's Marco Melandri scythed past Sykes into Turn 1 at the start of the fourth lap for second.
Yamaha duo Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark were cast a further half-a-second adrift of the podium battle in the opening stages as they engaged in a heated duel, although the former was able to grab fourth and close down Sykes.
Rea remained unchallenged to the flag to claim his sixth win of the year and surpass the tally of 59 WSBK victories set by four-time champion Fogarty in 1999.
Melandri quickly put daylight between himself and Sykes, and took a lonely second, while Sykes pulled away from the Yamahas in the closing stages to complete the podium.
Double Donington Park winner Van der Mark launched another assault on Lowes' fourth place in the final few laps, and got the upper hand at Turn 3 in the latter stages.
The Dutchman kept Lowes at bay to the finish to secure fourth and pole for the second race, with Lowes heading Aprilia duo Eugene Laverty and Lorenzo Savadori.
Ducati's Chaz Davies battled hard with the Aprilias, but faded in the end to eighth, while Leon Camier (Honda) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Puccetti Kawasaki) rounded out the top 10.
Rea's victory now puts him 81 points clear in the championship battle at the halfway stage of the season, with Davies holding second, 10 points ahead of Sykes.
Jordi Torres pulled out on lap six having crashed on the initial start, the MV Agusta rider joining Honda's Jake Gagne on the sidelines.
Loris Baz was also a late crasher, but remounted his battered Althea BMW to finish 18th.
Race results:
Pos. | # | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | 32'08.759 |
2 | 33 | Marco Melandri | Ducati | 5.381 |
3 | 66 | Tom Sykes | Kawasaki | 7.336 |
4 | 60 | Michael van der Mark | Yamaha | 11.893 |
5 | 22 | Alex Lowes | Yamaha | 13.145 |
6 | 50 | Eugene Laverty | Aprilia | 14.210 |
7 | 32 | Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia | 17.051 |
8 | 7 | Chaz Davies | Ducati | 17.743 |
9 | 2 | Leon Camier | Honda | 18.104 |
10 | 54 | Toprak Razgatlioglu | Kawasaki | 21.783 |
11 | 68 | Yonny Hernandez | Kawasaki | 30.614 |
12 | 36 | Leandro Mercado | Kawasaki | 31.111 |
13 | 40 | Roman Ramos | Kawasaki | 31.188 |
14 | 12 | Xavi Fores | Ducati | 31.864 |
15 | 21 | Michael Ruben Rinaldi | Ducati | 33.079 |
16 | 99 | PJ Jacobsen | Honda | 33.685 |
17 | 37 | Ondrej Jezek | Yamaha | 53.662 |
18 | 76 | Loris Baz | BMW | 1'44.844 |
Ret | 81 | Jordi Torres | MV Agusta | 11 laps |
Ret | 45 | Jake Gagne | Honda | 12 laps |
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