Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) here in front of the Italian raw ham advertisement – the Northern Irishman had a harder time in the heat in Andalusia and, unlike on Sunday morning, was fighting a losing battle.

Toprak wins ahead of Redding – Bautista on P3 with another podium

After a few laps, it was already clear that Jonathan Rea had a bad chance of just finishing on the podium in the hot conditions. His team-mate Alex Lowes did not even appear on the grid with complaints about his injured hand, which meant that Sunday afternoon threatened to turn into a black experience for the Kawasaki factory team. Initially still in second position, the reigning world champion fell victim to the two Ducati works drivers early on. Thirteen laps to go, Andrea Locatelli and Alvaro Bautista also passed the Northern Irishman one after the other, who shortly afterwards also had Axel Bassani behind him on the superior Ducati Panigale. Due to the castration before the start of the season with a significantly lower maximum speed for the Greens compared to the competition, Rea was clearly inferior to the competition on the straights. As experienced a year ago at high temperatures in Andalusia, the six-time world champion had every effort to keep ahead of the Italian only in the first six.

Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) right in the picture – shortly before the start of the second race as a spectator, after unfortunately his hand injury did not allow participation.

The fight at the top without the hopeless Rea
It took Scott Redding some time to get into the pursuit position. From the middle of the race, however, the Englishman was up to the leader and began to put the Turkish driver under pressure on his Yamaha. In the chasing group, Rinaldi was ahead of Locatelli and Bautista, who had gone far in the last eight lap on Turn 6 and thus lost a little ground to the two Italians. At the top, Ducati Ass Redding tried everything to put the world championship leader in front of him under pressure. With seven laps to go, Locatelli passed Rinaldi and Toprak’s lead over Scott had shrunk to less than half a second. Rea was still on P6 and had absolutely no chance of fighting for the podium on his own. But at least he grabbed Rinaldi in the fifth-last lap.

Kohta Nozane (Yamaha) finished his race three and a half minutes after Leandro Mercado (Honda), also in the gravel trap of turn six, with which the Japanese rookie gambled away the chance of a top ten result.

The last 3 laps with the fight for victory and podium
Redding had passed Razgatlioglu in the front, but a little later the Yamaha rider was able to counter again in the target curve. Behind it, Bautista had fought his way past Locatelli. So the fight for victory and third place on the podium in the last three laps was still completely open. But only for a short time, because the little Spaniard hurried away from the Yamaha factory rider in front of his home crowd, completely unleashed. Toprak managed the double in the end, and thus he was able to significantly expand his lead with the tenth victory of his career over the reigning world champion. Rea is now travelling to Portugal, 20 points behind, where he is considered the favourite after his excellent results in recent years. In this respect, the starting position in the Superbike World Championship remains exciting.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Ducati) was initially in second place – but in the finish the Italian who had fallen in the first run didn’t have much to order and was even relegated to seventh place by compatriot and brand colleague Axel Bassani.

Honda top – BMW flop

After finishing 7th in the morning in the first race, Michael van der Mark did not go any better on the best BMW in the afternoon either. Even if Eugene Laverty scored points again as a replacement for the ailing Tom Sykes with P11 and Jonas Folger in thirteenth, the weekend was simply a disaster for the blue-whites. BMW also tested it in Jerez de la Frontera in the spring and spoke of positive impressions afterwards. But it looks like, like KTM in their first 3 years in MotoGP, they usually have to try to gloss over their results. Despite the fact that the second race did not go as planned for Leon Haslam either, his HRC Honda team-mate showed another top performance after Barcelona. Alvaro Bautista was on the podium and the little Spaniard clearly confirmed the upward trend of his team.

Michael van der Mark (BMW M-1000RR) is going through a tough time – instead of fighting for the podium, the fast Dutchman is usually on a losing streak with his German bike. In the next year he gets a new teammate, Scott Redding, who can only hope that the blue-whites will soon improve (© BMW Motorrad WorldSBK).

The second race of WorldSBK in numbers

Isaac Viñales as expected, did not start on Sunday after his family member Dean Berta lost his life in a tragic accident in the first WSSP 300 race of the weekend on Saturday.

The Circuito de Jerez

The interviews after the second race on Sunday
Toprak stated that he was even slightly ill and happy that he had been able to bring his victory home. But after such a drama like the day before, he was especially relieved that the weekend was over. Scott Redding pointed out that it was very difficult to get past Razgatlioglu. Unfortunately, he would have made a slight mistake shortly before the end and thus lost the lead again. Unfortunately, due to the completely different lines of the Turk on his Yamaha, he was no longer able to strike back. A satisfied Alvaro Bautista emphasized with his second podium after third place in the Superpole Race in Barcelona

No champagne at the victory celebration with a subdued mood after the drama on Saturday, also in the second race with Scott Redding (P2, Ducati), winner Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) and third-placed Honda ace Alvaro Bautista..

The current World Championship stand in WorldSBK

P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU 449 YAMAHA
2. JONATHAN REA 429 KAWASAKI
3. SCOTT REDDING 375 DUCATI
4. MICHAEL RUBEN RINALDI 227 DUCATI
5. ANDREA LOCATELLI 227 YAMAHA
6. ALEX LOWES 199 KAWASAKI
7. MICHAEL VAN DER MARK 189 BMW
8. GARRETT GERLOFF 170 YAMAHA
9. ALVARO BAUTISTA 169 HONDA
10. TOM SYKES 167 BMW
11. AXEL BASSANI 150 DUCATI
12. CHAZ DAVIES 120 DUCATI
13. LEON HASLAM 104 HONDA
14. KOHTA NOZANE 46 YAMAHA
15. LUCAS MAHIAS 44 KAWASAKI
16. TITO RABAT 38 DUCATI
17. EUGENE LAVERTY 23 BMW
18. CHRISTOPHE PONSSON 23 YAMAHA
19. ISAAC VINALES 23 KAWASAKI
20. JONAS FOLGER 19 BMW
21. LORIS BAZ 17 DUCATI
22. LEANDRO MERCADO 12 HONDA
23. MARVIN FRITZ 6 YAMAHA
24. SAMUELE CAVALIERI 6 DUCATI
25. LORIS CRESSON 3 KAWASAKI
26. ANDREA MANTOVANI 2 KAWASAKI
27. LUKE MOSSEY 2 KAWASAKI

Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda) celebrated an excellent result with the Spanish fans with the second podium of the season – a clear upward trend for the works team of the world’s largest manufacturer.

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© WorldSBK).