Portimao WSBK: Rea closes on title with another win
Jonathan Rea has closed in on the 2017 World Superbike title after taking a second dominant victory of the weekend at Portimao, as Chaz Davies crashed from second.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Rea scythed through the field from ninth on the grid, running third by the end of the first lap and then passing Michael van der Mark and Leon Camier in five corners to grab the lead.
Aprilia's Eugene Laverty had a similarly strong start to jump into second and temporarily hold off Davies.
It took the Welshman four laps to get past Laverty and, by the time he made a move, Rea was leading by over three seconds.
Just like in Race 1, Davies was unable to make up ground on the leader, and eventually crashed at Turn 3 with three laps remaining.
Rea then extended an already-comfortable lead to win by 5.8s.
Another similarity to Saturday's race was Laverty losing pace in the closing stages, as he was passed by Van der Mark and, after a lengthy battle, Marco Melandri as well.
The aforementioned duo completed the podium, the former securing his maiden top-three finish with Yamaha, and the latter repeating his Race 1 result.
Laverty took fourth as Althea BMW's Jordi Torres was a further three seconds adrift in fifth.
Aprilia duo Lorenzo Savadori and Leandro Mercado were sixth and seventh respectively, with Puccetti Kawasaki stand-in Anthony West and Grillini Kawasaki's Ayrton Badovini next up.
WSBK debutant Takumi Takahashi finished 10th as the sole Honda rider in the race, as Stefan Bradl was declared unfit after injuring his wrist in his Race 1 crash.
Yamaha's Alex Lowes was also taken to the medical centre after a heavy crash in the Sunday race, while Barni Ducati rider Xavi Fores also fell from fifth early on.
Polesitter Camier (MV Agusta) dropped down to sixth in two laps before pulling over with a mechanical failure.
Rea has extended his championship lead to 145 points over Sykes with 150 available in the remaining three rounds.
Race results:
| Pos. | Rider | Bike | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jonathan Rea |
Kawasaki | - |
| 2 |  Michael van der Mark |
Yamaha | 5.834 |
| 3 |  Marco Melandri |
Ducati | 9.201 |
| 4 |  Eugene Laverty |
Aprilia | 12.792 |
| 5 |  Jordi Torres |
BMW | 15.943 |
| 6 | Lorenzo Savadori |
Aprilia | 19.359 |
| 7 |  Leandro Mercado |
Aprilia | 23.286 |
| 8 |  Anthony West |
Kawasaki | 36.982 |
| 9 | Ayrton Badovini |
Kawasaki | 48.544 |
| 10 |  Takumi Takahashi |
Honda | 50.000 |
| 11 |  Ondrej Jezek |
Kawasaki | 51.944 |
| 12 | Alessandro Andreozzi |
Yamaha | 56.705 |
| 13 | Xavi Fores |
Ducati | 1'07.518 |
| 14 | Riccardo Russo |
Yamaha | 1 lap |
| 15 | Roman Ramos |
Kawasaki | 4 laps |
| Ret | Chaz Davies |
Ducati | - |
| Ret | Leon Camier |
MV Agusta | - |
| Ret | Alex Lowes |
Yamaha | - |
| Ret | Raffaele De Rosa |
BMW | - |
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