Rea’s flawless victory seals fourth World Superbike crown

Full WorldSBK race two results from Magny-Cours

Jonathan Rea produced a hallmark performance in the opening Magny-Cours race to secure a 13^th race win of the year and with it the 2018 World Superbike championship.

Having dominated also season, the Kawasaki rider followed pole-sitting team-mate Tom Sykes for the opening lap before sizing up his rival with a pass up the inside at Turn 3 at the start of lap two.

Both Kawasaki riders traded new race lap records over the first half of the race but in typical fashion from Rea he gradually inched out his lead to a comfortable margin to deny Sykes any opportunity to line up an aggressive late attack.

With Rea retaining a lead of three seconds he duly charged to a seventh consecutive win, his 13^th of the year, to clinch a fourth consecutive World Superbike title.

Sykes could only settle for second but stretched ahead of Barni Ducati’s Xavi Fores who claimed his first podium since Aragon to strengthen his lead in the Independents’ standings. The Spanish rider saw off a spirited fight from Milwaukee Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori who just missed out in a race-long battle in his pursuit for a maiden World Superbike podium.

With Chaz Davies down in fifth place, allowing Rea to secure the title by extending his championship lead past 125 points with five races remaining, the Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider did strengthen his advantage in second place in the riders’ standings over Michael van der Mark.

Davies’ factory Ducati team-mate Marco Melandri produced a late race pass on van der Mark to take sixth place ahead of the Pata Yamaha rider with Toprak Razgatlioglu fighting his way back up to eighth place after a mid-race fade for Puccetti Kawasaki.

Eugene Laverty finished race one down in ninth place for Milwaukee Aprilia, having been handicapped by a poor qualifying, with Loris Baz rounding out the top ten on the Althea BMW.

Leon Camier narrowly missed out in 11^th place for Red Bull Honda but comfortably ahead of MV Agusta’s Jordi Torres and team-mate Jake Gagne, as Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing Kawasaki) and Roman Ramos (Team GoEleven Kawasaki) rounded out the points places.

Alex Lowes endured a race to forget after crashing at Turn 15 on the second lap before remounting to finish in 18^th place for Pata Yamaha, while Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi suffered a fiery crash triggered by a suspected engine problem.