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Portimao WSBK: Rea takes points lead for first time in 2020

Kawasaki star Jonathan Rea dominated the third race at Portimao on Sunday to move into the World Superbike championship lead for the first time in 2020.

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Starting from pole position following his victory in the Superpole race earlier in the day, Rea made a sluggish launch off the line but was able to scoot past both Toprak Razgatlioglu and Loris Baz on the outside at Turn 1 to retain the lead.

Behind, Ducati rider Scott Redding was on the move from fifth on the grid, dispatching Baz at the start before overtaking Razgatlioglu into Turn 1 on Lap 2 to put himself directly behind title rival Rea.

Despite his quick charge to second, Redding was unable to challenge Rea for the lead, the Kawasaki rider slowly but steadily pulling a one-second advantage at the front of the field. 

With the gap between the two only widening as the 20-lap race wore on, Rea eventually cruised to a 4.360s victory, completing his first weekend sweep since last year's Qatar round and moving four points ahead of Redding in the standings.

Redding, meanwhile, spent the second half of the race in a close scrap with the Yamaha of Michael van der Mark, who had slowly carved his way from the third row of the grid.

Van der Mark briefly passed Redding with seven laps to go, only to make a mistake later in the lap and allow the Ducati rider back into second.

The battle between the two continued till the final lap of the race, Redding holding off van der Mark by just 0.093s at the flag to take second.

Chaz Davies bounced back from an 11th place and a DNF in the first two Portimao races to finish fourth on the second factory Ducati, albeit over four seconds off the final podium spot.

Alvaro Bautista recorded Honda’s joint-best result of the season in fifth, ahead of the Go Eleven Ducati of Michael Ruben Rinaldi and the top BMW of Tom Sykes.

Razgatlioglu was running in third when he crashed on Lap 7 while under pressure from van der Mark, but remounted his Yamaha to finish an impressive eighth at the flag.

Federico Caricasulo was ninth for GRT Yamaha, while Motocorsa Ducati’s Leandro Mercado completed the top 10.

Razgatlioglu wasn’t the only rider to suffer a major crash in the race, with Baz, BMW’s Eugene Laverty, Kawasaki's Alex Lowes and Honda rider Leon Haslam all falling off their bikes.

Lowes and Baz retired from the race, while Laverty and Haslam were able to finish 12th and 13th respectively. 

Portimao World SBK - Race 3 Results:

Cla # Rider Bike Laps Gap
1 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 20
2 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding
Ducati 20 4.360
3 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
Yamaha 20 4.453
4 7 United Kingdom Chaz Davies
Ducati 20 8.363
5 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Honda 20 10.336
6 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 20 12.566
7 66 United Kingdom Tom Sykes
BMW 20 14.565
8 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 20 26.231
9 64 Italy Federico Caricasulo
Yamaha 20 28.103
10 36 Argentina Leandro Mercado
Ducati 20 32.926
11 31 United States Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 20 33.229
12 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty
BMW 20 46.555
13 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Honda 20 46.573
14 33 Italy Marco Melandri
Ducati 20 49.902
15 20 France Sylvain Barrier
Ducati 20 52.293
16 23 France Christophe Ponsson
Aprilia 20 1'05.643
17 63 Italy Lorenzo Gabellini
Honda 20 1'06.784
18 13 Japan Takumi Takahashi
Honda 20 1'14.503
12 Spain Xavi Fores
Kawasaki 15
22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 8
77 Chile Maximilian Scheib
Kawasaki 1
76 France Loris Baz
Yamaha 0

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