Race report
World Superbike Algarve
Portimao WSBK: Rea dominates, Redding struggles
Jonathan Rea scored his third victory of the World Superbike season in the first race of the weekend at Portimao, as points leader Scott Redding struggled to a lowly seventh-place finish.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Aug 8, 2020, 2:08 PM
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From pole, Kawasaki rider Rea was practically unchallenged over the course of the 20-lap race, holding off Yamaha man Toprak Razgatlioglu at the start and gradually opening a gap.
After five laps, Rea's advantage had grown to 1.4 seconds, and by half-distance the reigning champion had escaped to the tune of 2.4s.
Finally Rea crossed the line with more than five seconds in hand for his first victory this year in a full-distance race, both of his previous triumphs coming in the Superpole race.
Razgatlioglu finished a comfortable second but his teammate Michael van der Mark endured a more eventful race on his way to the final podium spot.
Van der Mark slipped behind the Ten Kate Yamaha of Loris Baz at the start to drop to fourth, and a mistake on lap seven dropped the Dutchman to sixth behind both Redding's Ducati and the second factory Kawasaki of Alex Lowes.
But on lap 10 van der Mark was able to repass both Lowes and Baz before picking off Redding three laps later to secure third.
From eighth on the grid, Redding climbed as high as third but couldn't maintain his pace in the second part of the race, falling victim to Lowes on lap 16 and then surrendering further places to Michael Ruben Rinaldi's customer Ducati and Baz on the penultimate lap.
Redding just hung on to seventh at the finish from the lead BMW of Tom Sykes, marking the first time he has failed to finish on the podium in WSBK.
Completing the top 10 were Alvaro Bautista (Honda) and Eugene Laverty, who scored his first top 10 finish since joining BMW.
Chaz Davies endured a difficult race on the second factory Ducati, ultimately finishing 11th ahead of the second Honda of Leon Haslam.
Puccetti Kawasaki man Xavi Fores and the GRT Yamaha pair of Garrett Gerloff and Federico Caricasulo rounded out the points scorers.
Rea's victory means he closes to within eight points of championship leader Redding in the riders' standings, while Razgatlioglu moves up to third ahead of Lowes.
Race results:
Cla # Rider Bike Laps Gap 1 1 Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 20 2 54 Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 20 5.142 3 60 Michael van der Mark
Yamaha 20 7.029 4 22 Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 20 9.851 5 21 Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 20 10.705 6 76 Loris Baz
Yamaha 20 12.226 7 45 Scott Redding
Ducati 20 12.485 8 66 Tom Sykes
BMW 20 12.829 9 19 Alvaro Bautista
Honda 20 14.233 10 50 Eugene Laverty
BMW 20 16.208 11 7 Chaz Davies
Ducati 20 22.477 12 91 Leon Haslam
Honda 20 22.581 13 12 Xavi Fores
Kawasaki 20 23.535 14 31 Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 20 23.577 15 64 Federico Caricasulo
Yamaha 20 30.728 16 36 Leandro Mercado
Ducati 20 39.137 17 33 Marco Melandri
Ducati 20 49.020 18 20 Sylvain Barrier
Ducati 20 55.510 19 13 Takumi Takahashi
Honda 20 55.891 20 63 Lorenzo Gabellini
Honda 20 1'16.109 21 77 Maximilian Scheib
Kawasaki 19 11 Sandro Cortese
Kawasaki 0 23 Christophe Ponsson
Aprilia 0 View full results
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