World Superbike: Jonathan Rea wins as Razgatlioglu crashes

Kawasaki rider Rea faced a daunting 49-point deficit to Razgatlioglu heading into Sunday's second full-distance race of the weekend, having crashed in Saturday's opener and the Superpole race.

But the tables were turned when Razgatlioglu suffered a high-speed crash on lap 10 of 19 at the same point where Rea fell in Race 1, Turn 15, as the front mudguard on his Yamaha R1 broke and went under his front wheel.

That paved the way for Rea to score his first win in a full-distance race since July's Assen event, the Ulsterman slashing the deficit in the standings to Razgatlioglu to 24 points with two rounds to go.

After an aborted start, triggered by a malfunction with the starting lights, it was Scott Redding that took the holeshot from second on the grid, but Rea was immediately on the move from 10th on the grid.

By the Turn 5 left-hander, the reigning champion was up to fourth place, and by the end of the opening tour he had dispensed with Razgatlioglu and the sister Yamaha of Andrea Locatelli.

On the second lap Rea went underneath the Ducati of Redding at Turn 9 to grab the lead, but he was unable to break away, with Redding repassing along the start/finish straight and into Turn 1.

Redding's time in the lead proved short-lived as he ran wide at Turn 5 on lap 4, allowing Rea back ahead, and later that lap Razgatlioglu, already back ahead of Locatelli, moved into second and set about chasing Rea.

The lead gap hovered between three tenths and half a second for several laps, with Razgatlioglu briefly getting ahead at the start of lap 7 before running wide and ceding the place once again.

Razgatlioglu never got close enough again to attempt another move on Rea before his crash at the fast final corner on lap 10, thankfully walking away from the incident without injury.

That left Rea with a 1.5-second advantage over Redding, who had been struggling to stick with the led pair, and from there it was plain sailing for the Kawasaki man for his 11th win of the season.

Redding made it a hat-trick of second places to stay within 54 points of Razgatlioglu, while Loris Baz finished third on the Go Eleven Ducati after surviving an investigation for an incident involving Alvaro Bautista.

Baz, standing in for the injured Chaz Davies, was once again locked in battle with Bautista's Honda for the final podium spot after the pair passed Locatelli's Yamaha together on lap 13.

Bautista then made several attempts to pass Baz, only to be rebuffed each time, and the duo finally came to blows at Turn 5 on the penultimate lap as Bautista ran wide and Baz went back up the inside on the exit.

Bautista's demise promoted Locatelli back to fourth, while Garrett Gerloff completed one of his strongest weekends for some time in fifth place aboard the GRT Yamaha.

Poleman Michael van der Mark couldn't replicate his wet-weather pace that took him to Superpole race victory in the dry, ending up sixth on the BMW ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi on the second works Ducati.

Leon Haslam (Honda), Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Ducati) and Tom Sykes' BMW injury stand-in Eugene Laverty completed the top 10.

Tito Rabat's return weekend with Puccetti Kawasaki ended in an early mechanical retirement.

Race results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Gap
1	1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	19
2	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	19	5.425
3	11	Loris Baz	Ducati	19	8.905
4	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	19	12.289
5	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	19	13.956
6	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	19	15.289
7	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	19	20.639
8	91	Leon Haslam	Honda	19	20.933
9	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	19	26.031
10	50	Eugene Laverty	BMW	19	26.276
11	36	Leandro Mercado	Honda	19	31.493
12	32	Isaac Viñales	Kawasaki	19	41.117
13	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	19	42.583
14	23	Christophe Ponsson	Yamaha	19	48.074
15	94	Jonas Folger	BMW	19	51.009
16	76	Samuele Cavalieri	Ducati	19	57.467
	19	Alvaro Bautista	Honda	0
	16	Gabriele Ruiu	BMW	0
	54	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	0
	53	Tito Rabat	Kawasaki	0
	83	Lachlan Epis	Kawasaki	0
	84	Loris Cresson	Kawasaki	0
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