WSB: Rea Makes It Eight After Imola Double

 Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) dominated the second Imola race for Kawasaki, with Rea’s eventual comfortable victory giving him eight wins from ten races so far, and a huge championship lead.

Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) passed a tiring Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati WSB) for his first WSB podium (albeit 26 seconds behind Rea) with Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team) fifth.

Rea took the holeshot and had only Sykes for company as they pushed on, with Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati WSB) getting past Giugliano on lap five to try and get back into contention at the very front.

Rea and Sykes rode in tandem for most of the race with Rea turning the screw on lap 13 with a best lap of the race to go 1.5 seconds clear and build his advantage from there.

Davies had pushed on to what looked to be a lonely third place until his bike gave up and he was black flagged to retire on lap 15 of 19.

In a race of attrition Haslam, Camier, Van Der Mark, Guintoli, De Puniet and Ponsson also failed to finish, with Haslam crashing out mid-race, holding his arm as he walked to the safety barriers.