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Australia

Magny-Cours WSBK: Rea beats Davies for eighth straight win

Newly-crowned four-time World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea completed the double by winning the second Magny-Cours race after an early battle with Chaz Davies, Michael van der Mark and Marco Melandri.

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing, Tom Sykes, Kawasaki Racing

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing, Tom Sykes, Kawasaki Racing

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Rea came from the third row to second after just three laps, and engaged Ducati's Davies up until the latter stages before making his decisive move to claim his eighth win in a row.

Davies and Ducati teammate Melandri drew alongside each other on the run into the first turn at the start, with the former getting the upper hand while Yamaha's van der Mark carved around the outside to take second.

Rea moved up from ninth to fourth at the Adelaide hairpin and scythed up the inside of Melandri at Turn 8 to get into the podium places.

Davies opened up an advantage of nearly a second on lap two, while van der Mark was powerless to stop Rea from coming through at Estoril on the following tour.

However, van der Mark was able to pull Rea in along the run to Adelaide, with the Kawasaki rider losing out to the Dutchman and to the flanking Melandri.

Melandri ran on at the Nurburgring chicane, though, and Rea finally made a move stick on van der Mark at Imola for second.

This battle allowed Davies to move 1.5s clear of the field, but Rea in clean air was able to wipe this out within two laps to shadow the Ducati man at the start of the sixth tour.

Rea made his first raid on the lead at Adelaide on lap nine, but Davies retained the position after the Kawasaki rider ran wide. This was repeated three laps later, but Rea got the job done at Turn 8.

Once in front, Rea eased away to secure his 14th win of the year and to tally up his 131st career podium, surpassing the all-time record set by double champion Troy Corser.

Davies held onto second for his first podium since the Misano round, with van der Mark completing the rostrum ahead of the sister KRT machine of Tom Sykes.

Melandri faded from the podium battle late on and was demoted by Tom Sykes to fifth, while poleman Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia) was sixth ahead of the Yamaha of Alex Lowes, Xavi Fores (Barni Ducati), Leon Camier (Honda) and home hero Loris Baz (Althea BMW).

Guandalini Yamaha's Jakub Smrz crashed out in the closing stages at Estoril, while wildcard Matthieu Lussiana suffered yet another mechanically-induced retirement on his Dreamteamcompany Aprilia.

Race report

Cla Rider Bike Laps Gap
1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea  Kawasaki 21 34'16.364
2 United Kingdom Chaz Davies  Ducati 21 1.804
3 Netherlands Michael van der Mark  Yamaha 21 3.552
4 United Kingdom Tom Sykes  Kawasaki 21 4.879
5 Italy Marco Melandri  Ducati 21 6.505
6 Italy Lorenzo Savadori  Aprilia 21 11.477
7 United Kingdom Alex Lowes  Yamaha 21 15.077
8 Spain Xavi Fores  Ducati 21 17.339
9 United Kingdom Leon Camier  Honda 21 17.655
10 France Loris Baz  BMW 21 22.725
11 Ireland Eugene Laverty  Aprilia 21 23.257
12 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu  Kawasaki 21 23.637
13 Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 21 26.756
14 Spain Jordi Torres  MV Agusta 21 28.178
15 Argentina Leandro Mercado  Kawasaki 21 29.292
16 United States Jake Gagne  Honda 21 38.534
17 United States PJ Jacobsen  Honda 21 42.776
18 Spain Roman Ramos  Kawasaki 21 46.765
19 Jeremy Guarnoni  Kawasaki 21 51.689
  Czech Republic Jakub Smrz  Yamaha 17 4 Laps
  France Matthieu Lussiana  Aprilia 2 19 Laps

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