Portimao WSBK: Rea does the double with race two success

Jonathan Rea produced yet another masterclass at Portimao to increase his grip on the World Superbike championship, with the Ulsterman blowing his rivals away thanks to a polished performance.

Rea now leads the championship by a huge 124 points from team-mate Tom Sykes and it looks increasingly like the title race is almost over despite the fact that the campaign has only just passed its halfway point.

The race began with a terrific start for Sykes, who gained the initiative from the off but he struggled to shake off the attention of both the Ducatis of Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies.

Giugliano closed on Sykes and eventually found a way past following a fantastic multiple-rider-battle but Rea, who started from eighth on the grid, had pulled himself right up to third by lap two.

What followed was a fine session of hunting as the Ulsterman hustled and harried both Sykes and the Italian, and once through he was able to open up an incredible gap as his opponents struggled to answer.

Indeed, following the halfway point and once Rea had opened up a sizeable gap, it looked like Kawasaki might get a double one-two but Sykes came under increasing pressure from Giugliano and it told.

As soon as the Ducati man had passed Sykes began falling down the field with what looked like tyre issues, and he could only muster eighth place in the end.

The Yorkshireman’s issues allowed Leon Haslam to swoop in and take third place, which helps the Derbyshire rider in the battle for second, ahead of Chaz Davies and the Pata Honda duo of Michael Van Der Mark and Sylvain Guintoli.

Haslam’s Aprilia team-mate Jordi Torres was good enough for seventh in another solid showing but the Crescent Suzukis of Alex Lowes and Randy DePuniet were only able to finish 13th and 16th in another frustrating and disappointing outing for Paul Denning’s charges.

Leon Camier’s bad weekend was compounded with a retirement suffered after just one full lap of the Portimao circuit.

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