WorldSBK Aragon SP Race Results: Rea back on top in Spain

Jonathan Rea has closed the gap back up to Scott Redding in the 2020 WorldSBK Championship standings with a convincing sixth victory of the season in the Superpole Race at Motorland Aragon.

The Kawasaki rider was beaten to victory by his title rival Redding in the full length Race 1, in so doing ceding his championship lead, but a fourth success of the year in the 10-lap sprint has shaved it back down to two points.

With Rea grabbing the lead through the first turns from a fast-starting Loris Baz, Redding’s failure to clear the Frenchman until lap five gave him no opportunity to get on terms with his rival.

With the conclusion of this weekend’s event set to mark the half-way point in the season, the pair head into a crunch final race of the weekend barely separated and starting alongside one another on the grid.

Michael van der Mark gave Yamaha a welcome podium finish on what is a tough circuit for the Japanese manufacturer, while Alvaro Bautista landed Honda’s best WorldSBK result since Thailand 2018 with a confident ride up the order to fourth on the new CBR1000RR-R.

Race 1 podium winner Chaz Davies left it late to make his presence felt but took fifth at the line from Alex Lowes, with Toprak Razgatlioglu, Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Loris Baz completing the points and the revised front three rows for Race 2.

Elsewhere, BMW’s thus far pointless weekend continued with some controversy after Tom Sykes’ wide moment on lap one saw him bounce back across the inside of the next turn into the path of the chasing pack. 

Collected by the unfortunate Leandro Mercado, Sykes stayed up but the Argentinian rider went down and has already been ruled out of Race 2 with a sprained ankle.

WorldSBK Aragon - Superpole Race Results