WorldSBK Assen SP Race Results | Rea overhauls Bautista for 100th Kawasaki win

Jonathan Rea clicked off his second WorldSBK Championship win of the weekend at Assen with a well-timed push past Alvaro Bautista in a shortened Superpole Race, in so doing hitting the ‘ton’ of victories as a Kawasaki rider.

Having put himself on the cusp of another career landmark on Saturday with a hard fought victory over Bautista in Race 1, Rea recovered from a modest start to the Superpole Race sprint to haul his way back into contention and strike at opportune moments.

Indeed, after being bullied down to fourth initially, Rea ascended to third by the end of lap one, where he would sit behind early leader Toprak Razgatlioglu - who held firm from pole position - and Alvaro Bautista during the first half of the race.

With the short layout coupled with the loss of a lap due to an aborted first start, there wasn’t much time to play tactics over nine 1m 34secs laps, with Bautista pushing past Razgatlioglu with four laps remaining with a slipstreamed overtake at Ruskenhoek

The Turk attempted to fight back but in doing so invited Rea to mount his own attack, scything past at De Bult. Immediately setting his sights on the Ducati ahead, the Ulsterman shadowed him into the final lap, timing his charge to perfection with a good exit from Turn 8 to nose ahead mid-way around the lap.

Fending off a late attempt by Bautista to pull off a famous last gasp pass at the last corner, Rea held firm to score a third win of the season and boost his championship advantage.

Bautista took second at the line but was demoted to third behind Razgatlioglu for a track limits infraction. They were a long distance up on fourth place man Andrea Locatelli, who crossed the line on his own after close challenger Alex Lowes slowed on the final lap with technical issues.

Iker Lecuona benefitted from his misfortune by prevailing in a seven-way battle for the remaining top nine places, holding off Loris Baz, Garrett Gerloff, Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Axel Bassani as the three row grid holders for Race 2.

2022 WorldSBK Championship | Assen, Netherlands | Superpole Race RESULTS