Superbikes | Portimao Round, Race1: Rea scores his eighth victory for the Algarve

Race 1 of the Acerbis Portuguese Round ends with an extraordinary Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) who scores his eighth consecutive victory on this track.

At the start of the race, the leader of the general classification defended the first position already entering the first corner, while Chaz Davies and Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) were in a tussle.
The Spaniard slipped to 18th position, unfortunately compromising his race which became a desperate comeback.

At the end of the first lap, Rea was in the lead followed by Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK).
Meanwhile, Chaz Davies and Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) had managed to move up to fourth and fifth position: two laps later, however, they had already gotten rid of the riders in front, with Sykes slipping, losing precious positions.
The BMW driver then subsequently crashed at turn 13: even if he managed to restart, he definitively compromised his race, which ended in 13th position.

Further back, Bautista was busy moving up the standings: on lap four he was already tenth and in battle with Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) for ninth place.
Bautista managed to get the upper hand and put Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) in his sights.

While his rivals were fighting for the podium, Rea had already secured first place and was lapping with a three-second lead.

With nine laps to go, Eugene Laverty (Team Goeleven) returned to the pits, thus putting an end to a subpar performance.

The battle for fourth place became a Kawasaki issue where Leon Haslam and Toprak Razgatlioglu competed, with Bautista in the window, however, who, six laps from the checkered flag, overtook Lowes, who stumbled into an error, and placed himself in sixth position.

In the end Bautista managed to take fourth place which, however, is of no use to him looking at the general classification: we will see in tomorrow's two races if the Spaniard, without any "stumbles" at the start, will be able to fight for the victory.

Rea thus crossed the finish line first, extending his lead in the general classification by 94 points. Chaz Davies managed to confirm his second place after starting from 12th on the grid, Van der Mark also made a beautiful comeback from tenth to third.

Bautista, as mentioned, finished off the podium in fourth, ahead of Leon Haslam while Toprak Razgatlioglu finished sixth under the checkered flag after starting from 13th position and confirming himself as the best independent rider. Alex Lowes finishes the race in seventh place ahead of Sandro Cortese, Marco Melandri and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team) while Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing) completes the top ten.

Below are the top six finishers:

1.) Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)
2.) Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati)
3.) Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team)
4.) Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati)
5.) Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)
6.) Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing)