Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) before the start of the first race – although he did not win, he increased his championship lead over Toprak from three to seven points on Saturday afternoon. It was the same for him on Sunday morning.

Second win for Redding ahead of Rea – Toprak beaten again

In 4 out of 6 sprint races, Jonathan Rea was the first to see the chequered flag. This time, however, after a tough battle with Redding and Toprak, it became clear that it was the Ducati rider in Navarra who was able to get that certain something out of his bike in order to complete the only 10 laps at the top. Toprak appeared at the rear of the two after the first lap and even took the lead shortly afterwards. But in the fast turn 1 he misjudged himself and only Rea and then Redding passed the Turk again. But on the start-finish straight, Rea had no chance, and the Englishman easily passed him from the slipstream. After that, the Ducati Hope set itself apart from the two pursuers. Below is his statement after winning the first race on Saturday.

Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing): „I’m really happy because it wasn’t an easy race in such high temperatures. But we managed to find the ideal conditions to do our best. I had confidence from the first laps, the feeling was excellent, I was comfortable. As for the world championship, I just want to think race by race. I do my best, the Aruba.it Racing Ducati team and the squad are doing their best. Let’s go on like this.”

Scott Redding (Aruba.it Ducati) before the start of the Superpole Race on the Circuito de Navarra – the Englishman is making more and more efforts to have a say in the title fight this season as well.

Second defeat for Toprak in the second race
With a little more than 3 seconds behind Redding, the Turk was only third. Rea, on the other hand, had approached the Englishman again in the last two laps, but was content with a second place in order not to take any unnecessary risk for an additional 3 points. For Razgatlioglu, 3rd place behind the Northern Irishman meant a further increase in his deficit in the World Cup from 7 to 9 points. Above all, and almost more importantly, he had talked about fighting for victory before the Navarre weekend. However, there was no question of that in the sprint race for the second time after the first race. On the contrary, Scott Redding is getting closer and closer to him in the intermediate ranking, and the pressure on the Yamaha rider is growing steadily. This brings a lot of excitement into the second race on Sunday, and it will be interesting to see how he will fare.

Shortly before the start of the Superpole Race on the Circuito de Navarra – located in the middle of the famous Rioja area. At 23 degrees Celsius, the temperatures were still within a pleasant range, while it should be significantly hotter again for the afternoon.

The race behind the top three
Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha) and Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) in particular, along with BMW rider Tom Sykes, were once again among the most striking and best in sprint races. In exactly the order mentioned, they also finished behind the top three. With a result in the first nine, Chaz Davies (Ducati), Michael van der Mark (BMW) and US boy Garrett Gerloff also scored points on the GRT Yamaha and thus placed in the third row of the starting line-up for the last race to back up. HRC Honda went completely empty, with Bautista in P10 and Leon Haslam in 14th, as did Ducati works rider Rinaldi in a disappointing thirteenth. Kohta Nozane in eleventh and Axel Bassani directly behind the Japanese were probably the only ones who were satisfied with their placement. With Lucas Mahias in 15th place and Jonas Folger in 16th place, this is definitely not the case. Like the Honda aces, these two have to hope for an improvement in the afternoon.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) ahead of Scott Redding (Ducati), the order in the sprint race was only brief – in the end, the new BMW entry won his second win in a row in 2022 and, like Toprak, fifth of the season. Currently, however, as the eight-time winner of the year, World Championship leader Rea is still the most successful of them all.

The interviews of the first three in the Superpole Race
Scott Redding emphasized that this sprint race is usually not his forte. But it is about the starting grid for the last race, and this is also important in addition to the points. At first, he was overtaken by two of his colleagues, but then he saw that his pace was not that bad. Therefore, despite a few small mistakes, in the end it was enough for the very front, which he is more than satisfied with. Toprak claimed he was happy with the result, with his face saying otherwise after 3rd place. But at least he improved his starting position, and now he is hoping for a good final race. Jonathan Rea looked much more satisfied than the Turk. He was happy that his team gave him an excellent bike, and it was a race that he had a lot of fun. Now he hopes that the improvements found will allow him to attack again in the last race and fight up front.

The Superpole Race in numbers

Start with pole sitter Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) in the picture on the right and Scott Redding in the centre, with the number 45 on the Aruba.it Ducati Panigale V4R.

The situation in the world championship after 20 of 39 planned races

P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. JONATHAN REA 295 KAWASAKI
2. TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU 286 YAMAHA
3. SCOTT REDDING 253 DUCATI
4. ALEX LOWES 159 KAWASAKI
5. MICHAEL RUBEN RINALDI 141 DUCATI
6. ANDREA LOCATELLI 138 YAMAHA
7. GARRETT GERLOFF 135 YAMAHA
8. TOM SYKES 135 BMW
9. MICHAEL VAN DER MARK 124 BMW
10. CHAZ DAVIES 92 DUCATI
11. ALVARO BAUTISTA 84 HONDA
12. AXEL BASSANI 81 DUCATI
13. LEON HASLAM 71 HONDA
14. LUCAS MAHIAS 36 KAWASAKI
15. TITO RABAT 30 DUCATI
16. KOHTA NOZANE 30 YAMAHA
17. ISAAC VINALES 19 KAWASAKI
18. EUGENE LAVERTY 14 BMW
19. JONAS FOLGER 10 BMW
20. CHRISTOPHE PONSSON 8 YAMAHA
21. LEANDRO MERCADO 7 HONDA
22. MARVIN FRITZ 6 YAMAHA
23. LORIS CRESSON 3 KAWASAKI
24. ANDREA MANTOVANI 2 KAWASAKI
25. LUKE MOSSEY 2 KAWASAKI

WorldSBK Navarra schedule

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