WorldSBK Jerez Results 1: Redding dismisses Rea to claim maiden win 

Scott Redding has clinched his maiden WorldSBK Championship with an impressive victory over Jonathan Rea that will almost certainly send a message to the defending world champion.

The ex-MotoGP rider bided his time to beat Rea at his own game, the Ulsterman’s usual trope of controlling the pace before pushing on at the end undone by a rival that had more performance to spare.

Starting from a WorldSBK pole position for the first time in his career, Redding lost ground off the start line to run in third, but he’d stick with early leader Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu to plot his attack.

The first strike came with nine laps remaining when Redding popped past Razgatlioglu into Turn 6 before latching onto Rea. 

With six laps remaining Redding pulled out to complete the same pass though would time intentionally run it out wide on the apex to block pass the Kawasaki rider and sit him up.

With Rea unable to respond over the final circulations, Redding pulled out a comfortable advantage to take a first victory for Ducati and with it the championship lead.

Behind Rea, Razgatlioglu held on for third from Chaz Davies, who made a brilliant charge back into contention to snatch fourth from Loris Baz in the closing stages.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi was a distant sixth, ahead of top Honda Alvaro Bautista and Marco Melandri, the Italian’s comeback performance seeing his ascend from 19th to eighth on the Barni Ducati.

Elsewhere, there was disappointment for Tom Sykes and Michael van der Mark after technical issues eliminated them from the action.

2020 Jerez WorldSBK – Race Results (1)