Rea wins WSBK Race 1 at Assen

Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea won the World Superbike Race 1 at Assen finishing ahead of Ducati rider Alvaro Bautista and Toprak Razgatlioglu on his Yamaha on Saturday afternoon.

The result means that Rea has regained the lead in the WSBK Championship standing from Bautista.

Rea beat Bautista by 0.103 seconds with Razgatlioglu, who started in pole position, dropping away from the leading duo in the closing stages of the race.

Razgatlioglu took the early lead but Rea made inroads and got past Yamaha's Andrea Locatelli to move into second.

Then in the third lap, Rea took the lead after diving into the final chicane and controlled most of the race thereafter in a six-rider train including Yamaha, Kawasaki and Ducati riders.

At this point of the race, Bautista was fifth behind Kawasaki's Alex Lowes, but manged to get past him and Locatelli before the Yamaha rider suffered from a mechanical issue during lap 11.

Locatelli dropped away and the race became a three-way battle with Razgatlioglu taking the lead back from Rea on lap 13, but on lap 16 Rea regained the lead thanks to late braking heading into Turn 1.

Then seven corners later Bautista passed Razgatlioglu to become Rea's main challenger.

Rea held off Bautista's challenge for the lead to claim his 16th win at Assen.

Razgatlioglu settled for third with teammate Locatelli ending fourth.

Honda's Iker Lecuona claimed a best finish in fifth, followed by BMW rider Loris Baz and Philipp Oettl on the Ducati.

In eighth was the Yamaha of Garrett Gerloff ahead of Scott Redding while Axel Bassani on the Ducati claimed 10th position.

RESULTS:

POS RIDER NAT TEAM TIME

1 Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 21 Laps

2 Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.It Racing Ducati +0.103s

3 Toprak Razgatlioglu TUR PATA Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK +1.014s

4 Andrea Locatelli ITA PATA Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK +9.712s

5 Iker Lecuona SPA Team HRC WorldSBK +17.451s

6 Loris Baz FRA Bonovo Action BMW +17.983s

7 Philipp Oettl GER GoEleven Ducati +22.002s

8 Garrett Gerloff USA GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team +24.545s

9 Scott Redding GBR BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team +25.188s

10 Axel Bassani ITA Motocorsa Ducati +26.938s

11 Xavi Vierge SPA Team HRC WorldSBK +35.566s

12 Christophe Ponsson FRA Gil Motor Sport Yamaha +41.901s

13 Michael Van Der Mark NED BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team 41.967s

14 Roberto Tamburini ITA Motoxracing Yamaha WorldSBK Team +42.014s

15 Lucas Mahias FRA Puccetti Kawasaki +45.699s

16 Leon Haslam GBR Pedercini Kawasaki +45.882s

17 Kohta Nozane JPN GRT Yamaha +45.972s

18 Luca Bernardi SM Barni Spark Ducati Team +45.975s

19 Leandro Mercado ARG MIE Honda Racing +48.144s

20 Hafizh Syahrin MAL MIE Honda Racing +58.169s

21 Oliver Konig CZE Orelac Racing Kawasaki +1 Lap

22 Michael Rinaldi ITA Aruba.It Racing Ducati DNF

23 Alex Lowes GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK DNF

24 Gabriele Ruiu ITA Bmax Racing DNF