Rea completes turnaround with triple triumph at Donington Park

Donington Park WorldSBK - Race Results (2)

Jonathan Rea leaves Round 8 of the 2019 World Superbike Championship with a 24-point lead after completing a terrific treble on home soil at Donington Park.

On the back of his wet weather win in Saturday’s first outing and sprint victory in the Superpole Race, Rea this time saw off the threat of his rivals of a full 23 laps in warm and sunny conditions.

Even so, in a repeat of the Misano Race 2, Rea was made to work very hard by fellow Kawasaki rider Toprak Razgatlioglu as the Turk proved the only rider capable of defeating his factory counterpart under braking.

Swapping the lead early on, a mistake into the chicane by Razgatlioglu allowed Rea to make a decisive pass on lap twelve, and though the Turk would go with the Ulsterman in the final laps as they stretched away he couldn’t quite get close enough for another strike.

At the end of a tough weekend that saw his lead destroyed and overturned by Rea, Alvaro Bautista salvaged a solid but distant third place finish on the Ducati, while Alex Lowes got the jump on both Leon Haslam and Loris Baz in fourth to lead home his countryman and Yamaha counterpart respectively.

Unable to make in-roads into leading pack from his lowly grid position, Tom Sykes – who started tenth after having his second place finish in the Superpole Race taken away from him when he crashed on the cool down lap – climbed to seventh position on the BMW, ahead of Michael van der Mark and Chaz Davies.

Marco Melandri completed the top ten on the leading GRT Yamaha ahead of substitute Peter Hickman, Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Sandro Cortese, while Leandro Mercado and Alessandro Delbianco completed the top 15 points.