Rea wins van der Mark tussle to double up at Misano

Full WorldSBK race two results from Misano

Jonathan Rea has seen off a spirited fight from Michael van der Mark to clinch a second consecutive double victory to tighten his grip on a fourth World Superbike title.

With van der Mark starting from the race two grid pole and Rea, winner in race one, starting in ninth the Dutch rider looked to maximise his advantage at the front as the Kawasaki rider fought his way up the order.

Rea, who initially made a strong start up to sixth place through the opening three turns, was dropped back behind Chaz Davies after being forced to sit up by Lorenzo Savdori ahead of him on lap two.

The defending World Superbike champion regained his composure to trade overtakes with Davies before passing Tom Sykes and Marco Melandri on consecutive laps to get up to second at mid-race distance.

But having lost time battling through the order, van der Mark had built a 1.5-second lead on the Pata Yamaha. After his race one domination Rea notched up a series of fastest laps to reel him van der Mark but once again found things tricky trying to overtake the Dutch rider.

Rea got the move for the lead completed with three laps to go thanks to a smart undercut between Turns 2 and 3 before holding off van der Mark to take a hard-fought victory. The triumph marks Rea’s fourth consecutive victory to notch up back-to-back doubles at Laguna Seca and Misano.

Despite the frustration of losing out on a possible third win of the season, van der Mark held on to second place for the factory Yamaha squad ahead of Melandri who had closed the gap while the front two were fighting for position.

Davies narrowly missed out on the podium for Aruba.it Racing Ducati in fourth place but was comfortably ahead of Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes who has continued to struggle with late race fades this season.

Alex Lowes claimed sixth place for Pata Yamaha just ahead of Milwaukee Aprilia duo Lorenzo Savadori and Eugene Laverty, with Loris Baz bouncing back from his race one crash to take ninth place for Althea BMW.

Leon Camier completes the top ten for Red Bull Honda ahead of junior factory Ducati rider Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

Toprak Razgatlioglu claimed top spot honours in the Independents’ championship with Puccetti Kawasaki in 12^th place, with Barni Ducati’s Xavi Fores suffering a cruel technical failure while leading the race on lap three.

Niccolo Canepa (Pata Yamaha), Jake Gagne (Red Bull Honda) and Roman Ramos (Team GoEleven Kawasaki) rounded out the points places.