Jonathan Rea seals off Estoril WSBK with a win

Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea won the dramatic final World Superbike race of the weekend at Estoril after initiating a gutsy pass on title leader Alvaro Bautista on the final lap.

 Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista appeared on track for his second win of the weekend in Portugal after overhauling Rea for the lead on lap 14 of 21, but the Kawasaki rider attacked him again in the final stages.

Rea was unable to make a pass stick at Estoril’s most obvious passing locations, the Turn 1 right-hander and the Turn 6 double left-hander, but made an audacious attack on Bautista into the Turn 7 downhill right-hander.

That strategy didn’t work out either, as Bautista reclaimed the lead, but it did set Rea up to dive up the inside at the tight Turn 9-10 complex and hold on for his fifth win of the season by only 0.194 seconds. The win closes the championship deficit between the two to 17 points, with the Kawasaki rider also winning the Superpole race earlier in the day.

The first half of the race was dominated by a duel between Rea and incumbent champion Toprak Razgatlioglu, who led from the start until being overhauled by his 2021 title contender into Turn 6 on the first lap. The reigning champion momentarily regained the lead on lap 7, but was demoted by Rea two laps later, and then by Bautista on lap 11.

Razgatlioglu stayed close to the two leaders early on but faded in the closing circuits, eventually finishing fourth, four seconds behind the leaders, extending his winless start to his title defence. On the second Kawasaki, Alex Lowes replicated his best result of the year after finishing fourth, running in the lead group early on but losing contact with the pack when he raced wide at the first curve on lap 15.

Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli held on to sixth place just ahead of Iker Lecuona, whose Honda’s front mudguard mysteriously fell off during the warm-up lap, but had little effect on the Spaniard’s performance.

Axel Bassani on the Motocorsa Ducati finished seventh, ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi’s factory V4 R, with Xavi Vierge (Honda) and last-minute GoEleven Ducati replacement Xavi Fores rounding out the top ten.

As his poor start to the season continued, Scott Redding was BMW’s top representative in 11th place as Lucas Mahias of Puccetti Kawasaki was unable to compete due to a hand injury he suffered in a crash during the Superpole race.

2022 WORLD SUPERBIKE ESTORIL, PORTUGAL FINAL RACE RESULTS