Reigning WorldSBK king Jonathan Rea cruised to a Portimao win hat-trick this afternoon which saw team-mate Alex Lowes, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Leon Haslam and Eugene Laverty - among others - crash.
Rea had a lap-one tussle with the Turkish Yamaha rider but managed to see him off again to cross the line with a near-five second lead as Scott Redding won a battle with Michael van der Mark for second.
Rea leads the world championship for the first time this year, ending his weekend in Portugal four points up after arriving from Spain 24 points down.
Behind Rea, Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) fought it out in sometimes vastly different lines on their very different four-cylinder motorcycles.
The early race was all about who could catch Rea, and the early answer was no-one, not even the fast starting and effective Redding, who held off VDM at the end.
The Ten Kate Yamaha joy of their first podium was short lived in race two as Loris Baz fell on lap two.
Another potential podium rider, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) was also to tip off, more slowly at the hairpin, and get going again to move back into the points.
With Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) a faller and then a retiree Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was fourth. A long fight between four other riders on Ducati and Honda machines provided entertainment in the off podium places – until Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) fell just after half race distance.
Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda) finally placed fifth, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team GoEleven Ducati) sixth, and top BMW rider was Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) seventh.
Razgatlioglu got back up to eighth, Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha) ninth and Leandro Mercado (MotoCorsa Racing Ducati) tenth.
