Race victory in the Superpole race on Day 2 of the WorldSBK championship at Jerez at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto, Andalusia went to reigning Champion Jonathan Rea having taken the lead from polesitter Scott Redding at the start of the race to jump from third to first. Rea held the lead for the full 10 lap race.
Redding went down to third having also been been passed by Razgatlioglu at the start but whilst battling with Redding, Razgatlioglu suffered technical issues thus ending his race early enabling his teammate van der Mark to claim a podium place.
The top independent rider Loris Baz was up into fourth ahead of the Redding’s teammate, Chaz Davies in fifth place and despite suffering issues in Race 1, Tom Sykes was able to claim 6th place even though he did drop three places from his start position.
Lowes finished in 7th place followed by the Yamaha of Gerloff and claiming the last points paying position was Haslam on the Honda.
The starting grid looked like this:
Row 1 : Rea : Redding : van der Mark
Row 2: Baz : Davies : Sykes
Row 3 : Lowes : Gerloff : Haslam
Row 4 : Razgatlioglu : Bautista : Rinaldi
Row 5 : Laverty : Cortese : Caricasulu
Row 6 : Fores : Scheib :
Row 7 : Melandri : Mercado : Barrier
Row 8 : Gabellini : Takahashi : Ponsson
Race 2 : After the warm up lap, the riders line up on the start grid waiting for the lights to go green and when they do, Rea gets a good start but Razgatlioglu gets an even better start moving from tenth on the grid to 3rd. Davies has a look around the outside of Razgatlioglu but couldn’t quite make the pass and is in 4th.
On Lap 2 Redding goes alongside Rea at the right-hander of Turn 1 and passes on the inside going into the corner. The BMW of Laverty can be seen slowing down with what looks like a technical issue and is unable to finish the race.
Going into turn 3 on Lap 3 Davies goes up the inside of Razgatlioglu into 3rd place, Razgatlioglu is looking to get back past but can’t manage it. On the following lap coming into Turn 9, Davies goes on the inside of Rea pushing him wide and sliding past in a very smooth pass up into 2nd. Ducati are now 1st and 2nd.
Lap 5 sees Razgatlioglu pass Rea but Rea manages to get back past and hang onto 3rd position.
On Lap 6, Takahashi suffered a crash at Turn 5 thus ending his race and then coming into the corner at Turn 13, we see Baz lose it and slide into the gravel. He was able to get the bike back up and out of the gravel and rejoin the track but was now down in last place.
Razgatlioglu eventually passes Rea on Lap 7 and moves up into 3rd place whilst the battle for 5th is hotting up between van der Mark and Rinaldi, In the meantime the two leading Ducati’s of Redding and Davies are pulling out a comfortable lead against the rest of the pack.
Lowes is looking to get past Rea whilst Rinaldi is looking to get past Lowes and on lap 12 Rinaldi keeps a tight line alongside Lowes going into the corner and manages to stay ahead moving up into 5th place. Lowes tries to respond but Rinaldi has firmly got his sights set on Rea and is edging closer to the reigning Champion.
On the following lap, Rinaldi shoots up on the inside of Rea coming into a corner but then runs wide allowing Rea to move back past again but on Turn 13 Rinaldi pulls out of the corner onto the start/finish line and comes back past Rea on the inside in a very smooth overtake and up into 4th place which he manages to keep hold off.
On Lap 16 Lowes passes Rea on the inside pushing Rea down into 5th and by the following lap we can see van der Mark chasing Rea down in the hopes of getting past too. Surely Rea must have an issue with his bike as he struggling to hold his position.
Sykes is now closing in on Gerloff and by the last lap you can see the riders are struggling with their tyres in the heat with many running wide.
Redding passes the chequered flag with a very comfortable lead over his teammate, Davis followed by Razgatlioglu and Rinaldi. Lowes finishes ahead of Rea who has managed to keep van der Mark behind him to finish 6th.
Another brilliant race win for Redding, his second win of this weekend and a double win for Ducati with 1st and 2nd place.
What a brilliant weekend of WorldSBK racing we have had and luckily we haven’t got long to wait until Round 3 which is next weekend, the 7th to 9th August at the Algarve International Circuit, Portimão, Portugal.
The Driver’s / Team Standings so far at the end of Round 2 at Jerez on the 1st and 2nd August looked like this:
| Pos | Rider | Points | Pos | Team | Points |
| 1 | Scott Redding | 98 | 1 | Kawasaki | 100 |
| 2 | Jonathan Rea | 74 | 2 | Ducati | 98 |
| 3 | Alex Lowes | 72 | 3 | Yamaha | 86 |
| 4 | Toprak Razgatlioglu | 66 | 4 | Honda | 41 |
| 5 | Chaz Davies | 57 | 5 | BMW | 27 |
| 6 | Michael van der Mark | 47 | 6 | Aprilia | 4 |
| 7 | Loris Baz | 37 | |||
| 8 | Alvaro Bautista | 37 | |||
| 9 | Michael Ruben Rinaldi | 30 | |||
| 10 | Leon Haslam | 28 | |||
| 11 | Tom Sykes | 26 | |||
| 12 | Marco Melandri | 15 | |||
| 13 | Garrett Gerloff | 15 | |||
| 14 | Sandro Cortese | 14 | |||
| 15 | Xavi Forbes | 11 | |||
| 16 | Maximillan Scheib | 10 | |||
| 17 | Eugene Laverty | 6 | |||
| 18 | Christophe Ponsson | 4 | |||
| 19 | Federico Caricasulo | 4 | |||
| 20 | Leandro Mercado | 1 |
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Featured Image courtesy of Ducati