Jonathan Rea Wins Race two ahead of Scott Redding after Toprak Razgatlioglu is wiped out at Turn 1 by Garrett Gerloff.

Very overcast skies as Jonathan Rea lined up on pole ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Toprak Razgatlioglu, with Andrea Locatelli in fourth and Scott Redding in fifth thanks to their Tissot Superpole Race results.

As they hurtled to Turn one the flyweight Michael Ruben Rinaldi got the jump on Jonathan Rea but Garrett Gerloff came steaming up the inside and completely wiped out his Yamaha counterpart and championship contender Toprak Razgatlioglu. He tumbled into the gravel and Gerloff stayed on. Jonathan Rea got swamped after his avoiding action. Andrea Locatelli ended up in the lead after all of the chaos calmed down.

At the end of lap one Locatelli led with Rinaldi in second and Alex Lowes in third and Scott Redding in fourth. Jonathan Rea was seventh behind Michael van der Mark. He passed the Dutchman at De Strubben hairpin on Lap two. Rea was then in attack mode on the rear of Scott Redding.

Scott Redding passed Alex Lowes with a firm pass into Turn eight and Jonathan Rea followed through on his team-mate. Rea then passed Redding into the Geert Timmer Chicane into third and set about moving up on Michael Ruben Rinaldi. He passed Rinaldi with ease into Turn eight. He had a 1.5 second gap to close down Andrea Locatelli who had a brilliant start to the race.

On Lap five, Garrett Gerloff was awarded a ride-through penalty for irresponsible riding after his ridiculous move into Turn one. Toprak was very animated when he returned to his garage and was quite clearly asking “why?” Gerloff even attempted the move. On lap seven Scott Redding made a move on his team-mate into Turn one to set about chasing Rea and Locatelli down at the front of the race.

GoEleven Ducati rider Chaz Davies had a great early part of the race and was in fifth by lap eight. The Welshman has had an up-and-down season but looked set for a good result to end the weekend. Gerloff entered the pits at the end of lap eight for his ride-through and quite clearly looked distraught with his mistake. His head was in his hands as he rode past the Yamaha pit boxes and dropped to last place.

At the end of lap 11, Jonathan Rea had bridged the gap to Andrea Locatelli and spent a while looking at the Pata Yamaha rider. He looked very comfortable behind the Italian and made his move into the Geert Timmer chicane and started to put the hammer down to try and build a gap on the young rookie.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi dropped into the clutches of a very racy Alvaro Bautista and they were battling for fifth and sixth with Alex Lowes in close attention. Rinaldi ran wide at Turn four which gave Bautista the inside line and his slid into fourth.

With five laps to go, the BMW Motorrad riders were battling for eighth and ninth. Tom Sykes passed Michael van der Mark into Turn one but the home-hero repaid the favor going into the De Strubben Hairpin. With three laps left of the action-packed race, Scott Redding caught Andrea Locatelli in second and sailed round the outside into the penultimate corner. Locatelli had another nibble going into Turn four but to no avail. As they moved into the last lap, Rinaldi, Sykes, Lowes and van der Mark all came into the final chicane together, and Sykes fell all on his own at the back of the group.

Rea crossed the line two seconds clear of Scott Redding to win all three races this weekend in Assen. Andrea Locatelli got his first podium of his WSBK career ahead of GoEleven’s Chaz Davies and Honda’s Alvaro Bautista.
Jonathan Rea leads the Championship as we move towards the mid-part of the season. A new circuit next time out at Most in Czech Republic. Can anybody knock him back off the top?

Featured Images: Geebee Images.