It was mixed and drying conditions with Six Time World Champion Johnathan Rea coming out on top

Jonathan Rea took the holeshot into turn one with Tom Sykes behind and Alex Lowes in third. There was a mix of choice for tyres with some choosing Intermediates and others on wets.

Alex Lowes was right behind Rea but on lap two lost the front at the Old Hairpin, compromising his grid position for race two. Tito Rabat also fell on lap two at Coppice corner.

Onto the third lap, Rea led ahead of the two BMW’s with Van Der Mark ahead of Sykes, with Haslam, Gerloff and Mahias on the back of the Yorkshireman for the final podium spot. Toprak Razgatlioglu was unable to get as good of a start as yesterday’s race one and got himself up into seventh place by lap two.

By lap six, Tom Sykes had caught the back of his team-mate Van Der Mark and started to pressure the Dutchman for second place, with Sykes going for a pass at the Melbourne Loop, but Tom ran wide, but then tried again at Goddards and Sykes was through into second as he looked to take his first podium of the season.

Scott Redding who had chosen full wet tyres front and rear instantly knew he’d made a mistake and was shaking his head on the warm-up lap, the Brit dropped from sixth on the grid to 18th.

With two laps to go, Toprak made his move on Lucas Mahias at Redgate and was half a second quicker than the riders in-front of him. Meanwhile Tom Sykes was a full second quicker than Rea on lap eight and was doing everything he could to close down the gap.

Johnathan Rea took his fifth victory of the season extending his championship lead to 23 points over Toprak. Tom Sykes took his first podium for BMW Motorrad with the new M 1000 RR and Michael Van Der Mark taking the final podium spot. Honda HRC’s Leon Haslam took fourth place with GRT Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff in fifth and PATA Yamaha with BRIXX’s Toprak Razgatlioglu in sixth.

Lucas Mahias took seventh place a great result for the Frenchman, Chaz Davies finished in eighth and Andrea Locatelli finished ninth. Alex Lowes was able remount and finish in fourteenth position, and Scott Redding finished in last place in 18th, a disastrous race for the Aruba.IT Ducati rider who is now 77 points behind Rea in the championship.

So Johnathan Rea will start from pole alongside the two BMW Motorrad’s of Tom Sykes and Michael Van Der Mark, Leon Haslam will head the second row followed by two Yamaha’s of Garrett Gerloff and Toprak Razgatlioglu. Lucas Mahias will head the third row with Chaz Davies and Andrea Locatelli. Alex Lowes and Scott Redding will have to start on the fourth row and have some work to do.

Featured Image: WorldSBK.com