Jonathan Rea has achieved two more podiums at the Spanish circuit in Navarra, while Lowes continues to maintain his fourth position in the championship.
The FIM Superbike World Championship got under way again this past weekend at the Spanish circuit in Navarra, where most of riders made some tests earlier this summer. The morning session on Friday, which took place on a cooler asphalt than the one in the afternoon, showed the best overall times of the first day on the technical track in Navarra.
Jonathan Rea proved to be the fastest driver on that Friday morning, setting a new best time of 1'37.629. From then on, hardly any rider was able to increase his pace in FP2, as track temperatures rose and grip decreased. Lowes, for his part, and although tenth overall, finished less than a second behind the fastest time of his teammate Rea.
The first 23-lap race at Navarra began with Rea losing, and then regaining his leadership position almost immediately during the first lap. The Northern Irishman stayed in the lead for five laps until Scott Redding took the lead, managing to pull away to a seconds lead. With Toprak Razgatlioglu third, Rea increased the lead with his closest rival to seven points.
In qualifying for Superpole, Rea secured a seventh consecutive victory for Superpole, with his best track lap time of 1'36.122. This was Kawasaki's 30th pole in WorldSBK, and his 34th of his career.
A good top-five finish was a good start for Lowes at this new WorldSBK venue, especially given the hot conditions they had to race in on Saturday.
Sunday's first round at the Navarra circuit, the Tissot Superpole Race, turned out to be a tough challenge for the six-time champion Jonathan Rea, who finished second, just over a second behind the race winner.
In race two, Rea finished third, after battling grip problems in the closing laps and after running second for most of the race, which ended up being 22 laps instead of 23, due to an incident that delayed the start of the race.
Alex Lowes finished fifth and sixth in the Superpole and in race two on Sunday, respectively.
The World Championship is starting to get really interesting, with Rea and Razgatlioglu tied with 311 points each, positioning themselves as joint leaders of the competition. Scott Redding, winner of race one and the Superpole in Navarra, remains third overall with 273 points; while Lowes, in fourth position, has 169 points.
The riders will travel to France for the eighth round of the championship, to be held on September 3, 4 and 5.
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