Portimao WSBK: Rea dominates, Redding struggles

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
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