Race report

World Superbike Misano

Misano WSBK: Rea beats van der Mark for double

Jonathan Rea completed the Misano World Superbike double after snatching victory from Michael van der Mark, while Marco Melandri was third in a thrilling Sunday race.

Lewis Duncan

Edited: Jul 8, 2018, 12:59 PM

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Race winner Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Barni Racing's Xavi Fores took the holeshot into the first corner ahead of van der Mark on the Yamaha and Kawasaki's Tom Sykes, while Rea scythed his way up to sixth from ninth.

A touch between Melandri and Lorenzo Savadori allowed Chaz Davies to leap ahead of them and Rea to fifth at the Carro hairpin, though Melandri would seize the place from his Ducati teammate after a small scrap at Tramonto on lap two.

Rea attempted to demote Davies further at Rio on lap three, but ran wide at the final part and allowed the Ducati rider back through.

At the front, Fores' charge for a first podium since Aragon came to an end when his Panigale expired at Tramonto.

This promoted van der Mark into the lead, with Melandri taking second from Sykes two tours later, while Rea made a move on Davies stick at Carro on lap four after the latter ran slightly wide at the corner before.

Sykes succumbed to the advances of his KRT teammate at Turn 3 on lap seven, with Rea soon engaging with Melandri for second.

Melandri and Rea carved each other up across the eighth lap, with the Kawasaki rider taking second by jamming his ZX-10RR up the inside of the Italian at Carro.

This battle allowed van der Mark to open up a lead of 1.5 seconds, though Rea had slashed this to just 0.6s with nine laps remaining.

Rea made several enquiries for the lead at Turn 3 in the latter stages, but van der Mark resisted these challenges. With three laps remaining, Rea threw his Kawasaki up the inside of van der Mark at Turn 2 to take the lead.

Van der Mark tried to resist around the outside, but he to yield. The Yamaha rider piled the pressure on Rea across the final few laps, but Rea got to the line 0.3s ahead for his 10th win of the season and extend his title lead to 92 points.

The lead battle allowed Melandri to close right in, but could not advance on third, with van der Mark just 0.2s further ahead in second.

Davies dropped out of podium contention at mid distance and was a lonely fourth ahead of Sykes, while Alex Lowes completed the top six.

Savadori took top Aprilia honours ahead of teammate Eugene Laverty in seventh, with Loris Baz keeping his Althea BMW ahead of Honda's Leon Camier to finish ninth.

Jordi Torres was an early retirement when his MV Agusta expired, with PJ Jacobsen and Alessandro Andreozzi dropping out of the race late on.

Race results:

Pos.#RiderBikeTime/Gap 1 1 united_kingdom Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 33'34.637 2 60 netherlands Michael van der Mark Yamaha 0.334 3 33 italy Marco Melandri Ducati 0.595 4 7 Chaz Davies Ducati 2.382 5 66 Tom Sykes Kawasaki 4.535 6 22 Alex Lowes Yamaha 6.559 7 32 italy Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 7.193 8 50 ireland Eugene Laverty Aprilia 9.972 9 76 france Loris Baz BMW 13.874 10 2 united_kingdom Leon Camier Honda 14.047 11 21 italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 26.003 12 54 turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu Kawasaki 28.886 13 94 italy Niccolo Canepa Yamaha 33.758 14 45 united_states Jake Gagne Honda 34.751 15 40 spain Roman Ramos Kawasaki 36.892 16 68 colombia Yonny Hernandez Kawasaki 36.983 17 36 argentina Leandro Mercado Kawasaki 56.465 Ret 99 PJ Jacobsen Honda 2 laps Ret 24 italy Alessandro Andreozzi Yamaha 6 laps Ret 12 spain Xavi Fores Ducati 19 laps Ret 81 spain Jordi Torres MV Agusta 19 laps

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