Reigning WorldSBK Champion Jonathan Rea dominated the opening race at Portimao this afternoon, taking a five-second win from Toprak Razgatlioglu while title rival Scott Redding could only finish in seventh place.
Rea controlled the race from the front, slowly opening a gap over the Turkish Yamaha rider and left Redding to fight it out with Loris Baz, Michael Rinaldi, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark who eventually completed the podium.
Off podium, Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) was a combative and then cool fourth, with privateer Michael Rinaldi (Team GoEleven Ducati) fifth and early race podium-bound Loris Baz (Ten Kate Yamaha) sixth.
Redding at first passed his rivals and then was in turn re-passed, with Baz, Redding and then eighth placed Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) all across the line in one loose grouping.
The top ten was completed by Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda) some 14 second back from Rea, and the second BMW of Eugene Laverty (BMW).
In the points, with two more races tomorrow, Rea’s tenth race win at Portimao sees him now just eight points behind Redding at the top of the table.
