Race report

World Superbike Laguna Seca

Laguna Seca WSBK: Rea outduels Davies for victory

Jonathan Rea eased to victory in the opening race of the US World Superbike round at Laguna Seca after an early battle with second-placed Chaz Davies.

Lewis Duncan

Edited: Jun 23, 2018, 10:31 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Poleman Davies held the lead on the run into the Andretti Hairpin at the start of the 25-lap race, with Rea nipping ahead of Kawasaki teammate Tom Sykes for second.

Rea attempted to take the lead at the final corner, but ran in too hot and Davies used his superior drive from the turn to reclaim the position as they started lap two.

Davies and Rea ran astern for the next five laps, easing two seconds clear of Sykes, who had Yamaha's Alex Lowes and the Milwaukee Aprilia of Eugene Laverty reeling him in.

A mistake for Davies at the Corkscrew allowed Rea to scythe up the inside and relieve the Ducati rider of the lead on lap seven, and the Ulsterman proceeded to keep Davies within seven tenths of a second up until the final few tours.

Davies managed to get to within six tenths of Rea with five laps to go, but a mistake put his deficit up to close to two seconds, which gave Rea a comfortable run to the chequered flag for his seventh win of the season.

Lowes crossed the line a distant third for his third rostrum appearance of the year on the Yamaha, with Laverty two seconds down in fourth. He will start race two from pole.

Marco Melandri recovered from a lowly 10th on the grid to snatch fifth away from Ducati stablemate Xavi Fores on the Barni bike in the closing stages, while Sykes slid to seventh at the end.

Michael van der Mark (Yamaha) put Sykes' seventh under pressure in the closing stages, but was just half a second shy at the line.

Jordi Torres got his MV Agusta home in ninth, while Jake Gagne ended his home race 10th on the sole remaining Honda, after teammate Leon Camier retired with seven laps to go and Triple M Racing's PJ Jacobsen was punted off at the Andretti Hairpin by Leandro Mercado (Orelac Kawasaki).

Mercado crashed at the Corkscrew just moments after the Jacobsen collision, while Toprak Razgatlioglu (Puccetti Kawasaki) suffered a nasty highside at the same corner with six laps to go, and was taken to the medical centre for checks.

Lorenzo Savadori fell from his Aprilia at the final corner on Lap 1, then remounted and benefitted from the attrition around him to finish 14th ahead of fellow crasher Loris Baz (Althea BMW).

Wildcard Josh Herrin was running inside the points when his Attack Performance Yamaha developed an issue with six laps to go. Fellow WSBK rookie Karel Hanika scored points on his debut in 13th for Guandalini Yamaha.

Rea's victory means he further extends his championship lead to by five points to 70 over Davies, while van der Mark holds onto third, albeit 91 points adrift.

Race results:

Pos.#RiderBikeLapsGap 1 1 united_kingdom Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 25 35'15.071 2 7 Chaz Davies Ducati 25 2.978 3 22 Alex Lowes Yamaha 25 12.212 4 50 ireland Eugene Laverty Aprilia 25 14.309 5 33 italy Marco Melandri Ducati 25 16.712 6 12 spain Xavi Fores Ducati 25 18.929 7 66 Tom Sykes Kawasaki 25 25.638 8 60 netherlands Michael van der Mark Yamaha 25 26.211 9 81 spain Jordi Torres MV Agusta 25 31.579 10 45 united_states Jake Gagne Honda 25 38.084 11 68 colombia Yonny Hernandez Kawasaki 25 44.971 12 40 spain Roman Ramos Kawasaki 25 45.412 13 98 czech_republic Karel Hanika Yamaha 25 50.768 14 32 italy Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 25 1'06.063 15 76 france Loris Baz BMW 24 1 lap Ret 54 turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu Kawasaki 19 6 laps Ret 57 united_states Josh Herrin Yamaha 18 7 laps Ret 2 united_kingdom Leon Camier Honda 17 8 laps Ret 36 argentina Leandro Mercado Kawasaki 10 15 laps Ret 99 PJ Jacobsen Honda 10 15 laps

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Laguna Seca WSBK: Davies beats Sykes to pole by 0.015s

Next article Razgatlioglu breaks toe in Corkscrew WSBK crash

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

1 h

Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors

Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

1 h

Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss

IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 1 h

IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing

Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

1 h

Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts