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Donington WSBK: Rea extends title lead to 101 points

Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea has extended his lead in the World Superbike Championship standings to a massive 101 points over Leon Haslam with two second places at Donington Park despite a near-crash in race two and having problems with his rear Pirelli.

Rea was chasing Sykes for the lead, ran wide at Coppice and was spat in the air but landed back on the bike and was able to continue, working his way back from eighth place to take 40 points away from the weekend.”

“I ran a little bit wide on the dirty part of the track. On the first four or five laps, the rear tyre felt terrible. I used the same SC0 as race one, as I have a lot this weekend, and it was completely different. It felt like I was riding on ice under acceleration. When I found a rhythm, I saw that Tom was on a different racetrack today but I knew we could get second as the Kawasaki is strong at the end of the race,” said Rea, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

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“I had a vibration on the rear from that point. It was a big moment, I am really lucky. I had accepted at one point that I had crashed but I landed perfectly back on the bike, big wobble and thought ‘OK, let’s go again’.”

Sykes is now only one point behind Haslam and Rea believes that his team-mate has now found his feet but Sykes will have to go some to bridge the gap which could see Rea stay at home for two weekends and still lead.

“All year the bike has been strong, I think Tom has now found his feet. It’s so cool to be riding for a manufacturer that pushes so hard in Superbikem,” said the Irishman.

“The points gap is now three figures, which I can’t believe. We are past the halfway point now and we need to carry on. I knew that if there was one place Tom was going to be a pain in the arse, it was going to be here and he proved his quality here. I think from now on, I hope I can make the races not as boring as that one was.”

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