Race report

World Superbike Magny-Cours

Magny-Cours WSBK: Rea claims third title with dominant win

Jonathan Rea has been crowned World Superbike champion for a third year in a row after crushing the opposition in a wet first race at Magny-Cours.

David Gruz

Edited: Sep 30, 2017, 12:42 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Race winner and 2017 champion Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing takes pole postion

Lorenzo Savadori, Milwaukee Aprilia

Eugene Laverty, Milwaukee Aprilia

Eugene Laverty, Milwaukee Aprilia, Lorenzo Savadori, Milwaukee Aprilia

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Lorenzo Savadori, Milwaukee Aprilia

Eugene Laverty, Milwaukee Aprilia

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Kawasaki rider Rea became the first rider in WSBK history to claim three consecutive titles, his tally putting him level with Troy Bayliss.

His 50th career victory also puts him only nine wins behind record-holder Carl Fogarty, the only man to score four titles.

Following a shower on Saturday morning, the race started under wet conditions but with no more rain falling on track.

Rea, who was guaranteed to clinch the title with a victory, made a lightning start from pole, with Tom Sykes and Chaz Davies both passing front-row starter Leandro Mercado to slot in behind.

The fight for second place was closely contested between Sykes and Davies in the early stages, with the latter holding the position for three laps before losing out.

At the front, Rea had vastly superior pace, leading by 2.4s after the opening lap, more than five seconds in three laps and extending his gap to over 10s by lap 6.

He then continued to rapidly pull away from Sykes, who in turn separated himself from Davies.

After losing second to Sykes, Davies suddenly slipped multiple seconds a lap off the pace, and dropped four places in short order.

His Ducati teammate Marco Melandri took over third from him, the Italian recovering from 12th on the grid, but by this stage was running 10s behind Sykes.

However, he gained a lot of ground on the Kawasaki rider, closing the gap to less than a second with three laps remaining.

Melandri tried to sneak past on the inside of the long Turn 2 left-hander, but ended up making contact with Sykes's rear tyre.

He then made a move on the final lap at the hairpin and, even though Sykes came back on the exit of that turn, Melandri again passed the Kawasaki rider later on and secured second.

At the front, Rea eventually won by 16.3s ahead of Melandri, with Sykes returning from his Portimao injury with a third place.

MV Agusta's Leon Camier passed Yamaha rider Alex Lowes for fourth and then stayed close to Melandri and Sykes.

Lowes in fifth was further 19 seconds behind, but still comfortably ahead of Eugene Laverty's Aprilia.

The Irishman passed Mercado for sixth late in the race, the Argentinian settling for seventh from second on the grid.

Lead Honda rider Davide Giugliano was eighth, with Michael van der Mark (Yamaha) fighting back from an early crash to take ninth.

The Dutchman was running fifth after Lap 1 but fell on the exit of the hairpin, his spinning bike also catching out Xavi Fores (Barni Ducati).

Davies continued to struggle until the end, and was only 10th at the chequered flag, over a minute down on Rea.

Race 1 results:

Pos.RiderBikeTime/Gap 1 united_kingdom Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 40'06.523 2 italy Marco Melandri Ducati 16.316 3 Tom Sykes Kawasaki 16.666 4 Leon Camier MV Agusta 22.133 5 Alex Lowes Yamaha 41.210 6 ireland Eugene Laverty Aprilia 1'02.101 7 argentina Leandro Mercado Aprilia 1'02.281 8 italy Davide Giugliano Honda 1'05.775 9 netherlands Michael van der Mark Yamaha 1'09.271 10 united_kingdom Chaz Davies Ducati 1'17.429 11 italy Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 1'30.899 12 spain Roman Ramos Kawasaki 1'39.111 13 italy Raffaele De Rosa BMW 1'40.891 14 spain Jordi Torres BMW 1'54.311 15 italy Riccardo Russo Yamaha 1 lap 16 czech_republic Ondrej Jezek Kawasaki 1 lap 17 italy Alessandro Andreozzi Yamaha 1 lap 18 australia Anthony West Kawasaki 1 lap Ret united_states Jake Gagne Honda 2 laps Ret spain Xavi Fores Ducati 4 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 Bradl withdraws from remainder of WSBK season

Next article Rea "eager for more" after historic third WSBK title

Top Comments

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

View More & Comment

Latest news

Zane Smith fined $50,000 by NASCAR for ramming Carson Hocevar after Phoenix Cup race

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

7 h

Zane Smith fined $50,000 by NASCAR for ramming Carson Hocevar after Phoenix Cup race

FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

11 h

FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned

TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 11 h

TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return

Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

12 h

Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore

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