Scott Redding hits ground running with spectacular Jerez double

Scott Redding set out his stall as a true contender for the 2020 WorldSBK Championship with a formidable double victory in the heat of Jerez, his first on the international stage since 2013.

After racking up a trio of podiums on his debut in Australia some five months ago, the long COVID-19 initiated pause did nothing to interrupt his form on the Aruba.it Ducati Panigale V4 R as he swept to a maiden pole position in Superpole on Saturday.

He followed that up with a convincing win in race one, via a cheekily executed block pass on Jonathan Rea, and a second place finish to the Kawasaki rider in the shorter Superpole Race after being caught up behind Toprak Razgatlioglu’s Yamaha.

The ex-MotoGP rider turned up the heat in race two with a dominant showing in rising temperatures, powering past Rea at the start of the second lap before putting almost four seconds between himself and team-mate Chaz Davies in a Ducati 1-2

The brace of strong results sees Redding move into the series lead, 24 points clear of Rea, with the next round in Portimao kicking off in just a few days time. 

“To have two victories here, a pole position and a second position, very happy for me and the ARUBA Ducati team. They put a great bike under me for these conditions and for me to ride it well. We did a good job. I could’ve won the Superpole Race. I had the pace to win but I was stuck with Toprak for too long.  

“I had to make sure I had the pace to win in Race 2, and I felt good with the bike and managed to get away and feel comfortable to just tick the lap times off. Really happy to bring back two victories for Ducati.”

Scott Redding sends out his message to Rea and co.

While it would have been foolish to ever discount Redding as a contender for the 2020 WorldSBK Championship, his superb success in Jerez really does represent food for thought for Rea in particular.

Not so much for the speed, but for the way Redding meticulously thought out the victories… a method that arguably set him apart during his romp to the 2019 BSB title once he’d figured out the rigours of riding a Superbike.

Rea’s preferred method of winning is controlling the pace before pushing on in the closing stages when his rivals have taken the best out of their tyres, something Redding was doing too just prior to striking for the front. Unusually on this occasion, the Kawasaki man had no reply.

In race two, however, he did it the other way, pushing from the get go as Rea ultimately went backwards as he suffered in the heat.

One may point to the Ducati’s clear top speed advantage but Jerez isn’t known for being favourable for machines with big bursts of power. That said, it hasn’t been a particularly successful circuit for Kawasaki in the past, despite the thousands of kilometres of testing that takes place there.

Either way, a confident Redding is a threatening Redding and Rea won’t have time to find out if he’s liable to implode like a certain Alvaro Bautista…

Roll on Round 3!