Rea keeps laying on the Kawa power
It’s now 8 wins from 10 starts for runaway SBK championship leader
WORLD Superbike championship leader Jonathan Rea continued his runaway form by winning both races at the Italian round of the championship at Imola on Sunday.
For the Kawasaki rider it was the eighth win from ten starts this season, and the Brit stretched his already dominant lead to 87 points over his nearest challenger Leon Haslam (Aprilia).
Rea won the first race after it was red-flagged and restarted because of a crash involving David Salom (Kawasaki), who fell off his factory ZX-10R at Rivazza on lap 11. After being taken to the Medical Centre, the Spaniard was diagnosed with a left radius bone fracture and a deep elbow contusion.
The pace in the restart was electric, as Rea and his teammate Tom Sykes pushed each other to the limit.
A tense final lap saw Rea cling on to claim his 22nd career win ahead of Sykes, with Ducati’s Davide Giugliano claiming third and the final podium place on his return to the WorldSBK paddock.
Haslam finished fourth ahead of the Honda of reigning world champion Sylvain Guintoli.
The second race went the full 19- lap distance, with the Kawasaki Racing duo claiming their second 1-2 finish of the day as Rea once again got the better of Sykes with a comfortable 4.4 second lead at the line.
Third place went to Jordi Torres (Aprilia) who claimed his career’s first podium finish, with Giugliano fourth. Guintoli crashed out before half distance as did Haslam. Standings (5 of 13 rounds completed) 1 - Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki - 240 2 - Leon Haslam, Aprilia - 153 3 - Tom Sykes, Kawasaki - 128