WorldSBK Navarra Race 1 Results | Scott Redding trims title deficit with win

Scott Redding emphatically demonstrated his credentials for a 2021 WorldSBK Championship title fight-back with his second consecutive victory in the opening race of the weekend in Navarra.

If the Briton went into the race wanting to make a statement to Ducati following the bombshell announcement earlier in the week that he will be BMW-bound for 2022, he did it in formidable style to see off the challenge of series leader Jonathan Rea.

Fastest in free practice and starting from pole position, Rea looked the man to beat heading into the first-ever WorldSBK race to take place around the Basque region venue.

Despite losing the hole-shot to Redding into the fast sweeping turn one right-hander, Rea hustled his way through again at Turn 6 and promptly began attempting to put air between himself and the Ducati man.

However, Rea couldn’t shake Redding beyond a 0.4secs margin, which soon began to reduce as the British rider gathered his composure and set about latching onto the back of the Kawasaki.

Tucking up behind Rea through the low speed final corner before slingshotting past by the end of the home straight, Redding took the lead at the start of Lap 6 of 23 and didn’t look back.

Easing out a comfortable winner by three seconds at the flag, Redding’s fourth win of the season comes after he returned to the top of the podium last time out in Most. The win sees him nibble five more points off the overall lead, bringing his deficit to the top down to 45 points.

Nevertheless, Rea - who survived a nervy skid he was able to flick back upright on lap 14 - extends his advantage at the head of the standings over Toprak Razgatlioglu from three to seven points. The Turkish rider battled  back from his eighth place grid position to haul himself up to fourth by the end of lap one but was made to work to get the better of team-mate Andrea Locatelli, en route to a lonely third by the flag.

Locatelli meanwhile made it seven top five results in a row with a confident run to fourth place, clear of Alex Lowes in fifth and the two BMW riders headed up by Tom Sykes and Michael van der Mark.

Axel Bassani picked up more solid points for eighth place, ahead of Garrett Gerloff after the American was forced to fight his way back up the order after slipping to as low as 13th at one stage. Similarly, it was a tough race for Reddings team-mate Michael Ruben Rinaldi down in tenth, ahead of Kohta Nozane, who enjoyed his most convincing showing of the season en route to 11th.

Tito Rabat, Leon Haslam, Jonas Folger and wild-card Suzuki rider Naimichi Uramoto completed the points’ paying positions.

Elsewhere, Alvaro Bautista and Chaz Davies retired after crashing on the same lap in separate incidents, while Leandro Mercado swiped out Christophe Ponsson after low-siding at Turn 3

2021 WorldSBK Navarra, Spain | Race 1 RESULTS