WSBK, Imola, J3, Race 2: Johnny Rea drives home the point

Johnny Rea's victory on Saturday at Imola was not experienced as a tragedy at Ducati. Firstly because with 48 points in advance, the Northern Irishman did not threaten Bautista. Then it gave a little interest back to the Championship in terms of spectacle. Finally Álvaro Bautista, with his victory bonuses, was making a hole in Ducati's budget. “ Without Álvaro we would not have won a victory, although we also have a good driver like Chaz Davies » declared Ducati Sporting Director, Paolo Ciabatti.

As a former MotoGP rider, Baptist has deserved all the praise, but for Aruba and Ducati, the Spaniard's winning streak is an expensive pleasure. The contract concluded with the 34-year-old pilot provides for generous bonuses in the event of success. “ The lower the fixed salary, the higher the bonuses. We can assume a figure of 200 euros, but this is only the beginning » explained Ciabatti to GP One. “The expenses are shared between Aruba and Ducati at around 50% each. So we both pay and almost commit suicide, but with a smile ". And we can easily imagine that Álvaro will hit the jackpot when he receives the bonus rewarding the title of World Champion. This is a million, at least. We're used to it at Ducati: last year, with its 6 victories in MotoGP, Andrea Dovizioso had almost doubled his salary!

On the starting grid, alongside Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) in pole position, we found Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) on the first row. The second row consisted of Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), Alex Lowes (Yamaha) and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team). Markus Reiterberger (BMW) followed with Michael van der Mark (Yamaha) and Jordi Torres (Kawasaki). Tommy Bridewell replaced Eugene Laverty who suffered broken wrists. Tommy said that from the start of the day Gigi Dall'igna was in the pit making sure the installation went well. Bridewell said he feels that appreciation and support makes a huge difference to a pilot. At Honda-Moriwaki-Althea, Leon Camier was withdrawn.

Who was going to win this second race? Knowing that in the first Rea had completed 17 laps out of 19 in 1'46, that is to say all except the one at the start and the last in "freewheel", and that Bautista had managed 6 (and all the others in 1'47), we could envisage a favorite position for the Kawasaki. Rea also set a new record in 1'46.023. There was, however, one caveat: the tires for this 10-lap race were not the same as for the 1-lap Race 17.

Race 2:

With 13° for the air temperature and 18° for that of the track, worry reigned on the circuit after the morning warmup on the wet track. At the time of departure, Tom Sykes' BMW broke down. The Englishman started last from the pit lane exit. The fastest to start was Chaz Davies ahead of Johnny Rea, Álvaro Bautista, Leon Haslam, Michael van der Mark, Alex Lowes and Toprak Razgatlioglu. Tom Sykes was of course 18th and last.

At the end of the first lap, Davies missed slightly and Rea took advantage to take command from Bautista, with the Welshman now third. Rea gradually moved away from Bautista, 0.5 ahead at the end of the second round, with Davies third at 1.1, ahead of van der Mark at 2.6, Leon Haslam and Razgatlioglu.

With 7 laps remaining, Razgatlioglu, who started thirteenth on the grid, had already moved up to fifth position after overtaking Lowes and Haslam. Rea meanwhile escaped in the lead with 0.9 ahead of Bautista, 1.3 over Davies, 4.9 over van der Mark and Razgatlioglu, then 5.5 over Haslam and Lowes. Torres eighth was 11 seconds behind after 5 laps, exactly halfway through this 10-lap event.

A second behind Rea, Bautista was threatened by teammate Chaz Davies. At this stage of the Championship, there were of course no team instructions yet. Davies took the opportunity to overtake Bautista who was not really resisting, perhaps hoping that Davies could close his 1.4 gap on leader Johnny Rea.

With 2 laps to go, Rea was 1.1 ahead of Davies, 4.1 ahead of Bautista and 8.5 ahead of van der Mark. There was then a great fight at 12.2 with Lowes fifth battling it out with Haslam and Razgatlioglu. Tom Sykes had moved up to ninth at 17.8.

Johnny Rea took his second victory of the weekend (and of the year) ahead of the two official Ducatis of Chaz Davies and Alvaro Bautista. Michael van der Mark finished fourth ahead of his teammate Alex Lowes, Leon Haslam, Toprak Razgatlioglu and a well-recovered Tom Sykes.

Race 2 Results:

Provisional ranking of the World Championship:

Photos © wsbk.com / Dorna