Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea took his second win of the Imola WorldSBK weekend this morning, crossing the line two seconds ahead of the Aruba Ducati’s Chaz Davies with series leader Alvaro Bautista third.
Davies kept the lead from pole but a mistake on the brakes into the final chicane on lap one saw Rea able to pounce and he didn’t look back.
The Welshman settled into third on a drying track and made a pass on Bautista with four laps left to run but just didn’t have enough laps left to reel in the reigning champion despite setting a new lap record, and another error sealed the deal.
Bautista was one of four riders to choose the SCX rear Pirelli and it is the first time that tyre has been used in a race this season. It was developed specifically for the Superpole race and introduced at Aragon but track conditions had not been suitable.
Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha) ran out fourth after clearing some space between himself and a following pack of three battling riders.
Still-spewy Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha), Leon Haslam (Kawasaki) and Saturday podium runner Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti) finished in that order - fifth, sixth and seventh respectively - after Razgatlioglu dropped back and had to fight with eighth placed rider Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad ) and another privateer Kawasaki man, Jordi Torres (Pedercini).
Markus Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad) held off another great short-notice ride from BSB regular Tommy Bridewell (Team GoEleven Ducati) for tenth.
