Lausitz WSBK: Rea rebounds with dominant win in shortened wet race

With rain falling on track soon before the start, the race was supposed to start 15-minutes later than scheduled but, following the sighting and warm-up laps, lack of visibility caused a red flag.

Another delay of 30 minutes followed before the field rejoined the track for the race, which was shortened by five laps.

Chaz Davies fell behind Tom Sykes off the line and then Rea also passed him, the Northern Irishman working his way up from sixth on the grid.

Rea passed his teammate a couple of corners later with Sykes soon falling and retiring at the braking zone of Turn 10.

After the Briton's crash, Davide Giugliano was the only one managing to keep up with Rea but the Italian also lost control of his bike on Lap 4, suffering a highside crash.

After losing out to the two Kawasakis and Giugliano, yesterday's dominant winner Davies dropped back to the lower parts of the top 10.

Lorenzo Savadori was next to run second but the Italian ended up crashing too, giving fellow Aprilia rider Alex de Angelis the position.

At the front, Rea confidently cruised to the finish with a massive gap.

De Angelis safely completed the race to take his first World Superbike podium as the top finish of his rookie season was seventh previously.

Xavi Fores, who made his MotoGP debut in the championship's previous round, also scored his maiden top 3 finish in WSBK behind the Aprilia rider.

Leon Camier secured fourth followed by Sylvain Guintoli, who passed Davies for the spot.

Reigning British Superbike champion Joshua Brookes also took his best result in seventh with Michael Van der Mark salvaging eighth despite a crash.

Team GoEleven's Roman Ramos and Nicky Hayden, who started third but fell to the back of the order, completed the top 10.

Alongside Giugliano and Savadori six others retired from the race including Althea BMW duo Markus Reiterberger and Jordi Torres.

Anthony West retired from fifth with Yamaha's Alex Lowes also losing out on a potential top 10 finish.

Saeed Al Sulaiti and Dominic Schmitter also failed to finish the race.

Thanks to Sykes' retirement, Rea extended his championship lead to 47 points.

Full results

Cla	Driver	Bike	Gap
1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki
2	Alex de Angelis	Aprilia	9.396
3	Xavi Forés	Ducati	13.041
4	Leon Camier	MV Agusta	15.728
5	Sylvain Guintoli	Yamaha	17.100
6	Chaz Davies	Ducati	19.780
7	Josh Brookes	BMW	32.208
8	Michael van der Mark	Honda	54.373
9	Roman Ramos	Kawasaki	57.271
10	Nicky Hayden	Honda	59.671
11	Luca Scassa	Ducati	1'01.938
12	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki	1'14.028
13	Gianluca Vizziello	Kawasaki	1'14.038
14	Pawel Szkopek	Yamaha	1'46.309
15	Karel Abraham	BMW	1'51.775
16	Peter Sebestyen	Yamaha	1 lap
	Dominic Schmitter	Kawasaki	4 laps
	Saeed Al Sulaiti	Kawasaki	6 laps
	Alex Lowes	Yamaha	7 laps
	Markus Reiterberger	BMW	8 laps
	Jordi Torres	BMW	10 laps
	Anthony West	Kawasaki	10 laps
	Lorenzo Savadori	Aprilia	10 laps
	Davide Giugliano	Ducati	13 laps