WorldSBK Estoril | Rea strides ahead as Redding takes a tumble

Jonathan Rea took a big step into the lead of the 2021 WorldSBK Championship after winning the final race of the weekend at Estoril in the wake of Scott Redding crashing out as they disputed the lead

On a weekend Rea has been made to work harder than usual for his otherwise customary set of strong results, the final race was no exception with the Kawasaki rider forced to fight back from slipping to as low as sixth at one stage.

However, after being assisted by incidents for those up ahead, Rea was soon leading the chase to Redding and after passing with six laps remaining, the Ducati rider's attempts to respond straight away would instead see him crash.

It gives Rea a 36 point lead over Redding and Toprak Razgatlioglu after two rounds of 13.

Boxed down to third coming out of the first corner, a boisterous overtake by Michael Ruben Rinaldi proceeded to unsettle Rea further, allowing the Italian, Garrett Gerloff and also BMW’s fast starting Eugene Laverty up ahead of him.

However, the path would ultimately clear between himself and Redding when he got the better of Laverty and Razgatlioglu was forced to drop back by two long lap penalties for jumping the start.

He also gained two positions when Garrett Gerloff got out of shape under braking for Turn 4 and couldn’t prevent his bucking and weaving Yamaha from slamming into the back of Rinaldi’s Ducati, putting both out of the race.

Despite the modest gap to Redding, Rea would eventually reel him to put  him under significant pressure coming into the second-half of the race. While Rea’s first attempt to pass into Turn 1 on lap 13 was repelled by Redding on the cut-back, Rea passed again into Turn 3.

A desperate Redding attempted to respond straight away at Turn 4 but instead tucked the front of the Ducati, narrowly avoiding the back wheel of the Kawasaki ahead.

Releasing Rea into the lead, though Chaz Davies - making the most of his elevated ninth on the grid for this race - kept his rival honest but couldn’t prevent the six-time World Champion from scoring his fourth win in six races.

Davies brought a tough weekend to an end on a high of second place, while Razgatlioglu - arguably the fastest man of the race - hauled his Yamaha up to third position, ahead of Alex Lowes and Andrea Locatelli, the WorldSSP champion producing easily his best performance of the year so far on the second of the factory Yamahas.

Michael van der Mark finished as the top BMW rider in sixth place, from leading Honda man Alvaro Bautista, with Tom Sykes, Laverty and Tito Rabat completing the top ten. 

2021 WorldSBK Estoril | Race 2 Results