WSB: Jonathan Rea secures Magny-Cours double but must wait for his sixth title

Jonathan Rea narrowly missed out on clinching his sixth consecutive World Superbike crown despite securing a sensational double at Magny-Cours. 

The Kawasaki rider mastered the tricky wet conditions in the opening feature race and then the Superpole race, before needing to finish inside the top three in the final race to secure the title. If victorious, Rea would clinch his 100^th WSB win.

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It started off perfectly for Rea and he led for the few laps of the race. However, his closest title challenger Scott Redding was making his way through the order and was now chasing him down. The ARUBA.IT Racing Ducati rider made his move and immediately began to pull away. 

Rea was struggling for traction on the exit of corners and as a result he would lose out to Loris Baz and Chaz Davies. Rea did everything he could to try and fight back against Davies and wrap the championship up, however he was unable to put a move on the Ducati rider. 

As a result, Rea leads Redding by 59 points with 62 points available in the remaining three races of the year at Estoril. 

Redding secured his fifth win of the season in the final race of the weekend, crossing the line with a 2.551s advantage over Baz. It was Baz’s second podium of his home round after a brilliant second in the opening race. 

Alex Lowes enjoyed a positive weekend too, securing a double podium of his own. He finished third in race one before completing a Kawasaki one-two in the Superpole race on Sunday morning. 

Michael van der Mark was also involved in the podium celebrations over the course of the weekend, finishing third in the Superpole race for Pata Yamaha. The Dutch rider finished ninth and fifth respectively in the two feature races. 

Teammate Toprak Razgatlioglu finished race one in sixth but was only able to finish ninth in the remaining two races of the weekend. GRT Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff secured a pair of eighth place finishes on Sunday after crashing out of a controversial opening race for the American. 

Gerloff came together with BMW’s Tom Sykes at the beginning of the race, with the latter falling and taking teammate Eugene Laverty out of the race too. Gerloff was cleared of any wrongdoing by race direction. 

It was a real shame for the BMW duo, who had secured the manufacturer’s first-ever Superpole one-two in Saturday’s qualifying session – With Laverty taking pole. Things didn’t get much better for the BMW riders on Sunday, with Sykes securing the team’s best result of 10th in race two. 

It was also a tough weekend for Team HRC duo Leon Haslam and Alvaro Bautista. Haslam was on for a good result in race one but suffered a massive highside on the final lap whilst fighting for fifth spot. The Brit secured a 11th and 13th on Sunday. Meanwhile, Bautista’s best result of the weekend race 12th. 

The final round of the 2020 WSB season takes place at Estoril on October 16-18.