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Jonathan Rea is once again the leader of the World Superbikes. The reigning champion has only released the lead for one weekend, as he has won in Assen not without a fight, but taking advantage of the battle between Toprak Razgatlioglu and Scott Redding to take an advantage that has ended up being definitive.
The race had to be stopped two laps early due to a heavy fall for Jonas Folger, who was being treated on the Assen track. And it has been a test plagued with accidents, so much so that only fourteen riders finished without problems. Hard fall also of Álvaro Bautista.
Álvaro Bautista fell again and Rabat withdrew due to mechanical problems
In the classification there was already enough movement, because Jonathan Rea took pole again and Toprak Razgatlioglu suffered a fall at the beginning of training. But the Yamaha mechanics had time to fix the bike so that the Turk could take a lap in extremis that placed him second. Also, Tom Sykes and Garrett Gerloff stayed last.
At the exit Toprak Razgatlioglu managed to overtake Jonathan Rea, but a few corners later he slipped in and the Kawasaki rider regained the lead. Michael Ruben Rinaldi seemed to want to go with the World Cup leaders as well to fight for victory, while Scott Redding, fourth, struggled to keep up.
Behind we had a brutal fall of Álvaro Bautista, which circled several times in the air but fortunately was able to get up on its own feet. Alex Lowes also went to the ground, and then we had a hit in the front zone, because Rinaldi also fell from his Ducati Panigale V4 R.
Razgatlioglu began to impose his law and passed to Rhea. The head rhythm had slowed enough that Redding was hooked on it too. We had an exciting three-way duel ahead of us. Rea became leader again and it seemed that he wanted to change the rhythm to take off the trio a bit.
Gerloff's comeback was being very good, so much so that he was already eighth and began to harass Leon Haslam. Scott Redding went on the attack: overtaking Razgatlioglu to go after Rea. But he was unable to do so and got into a battle for the Turk that gave Rea a lot of headroom.
Double fall in the rear zone, first by Lucas Mahias and after Kohta Nozane, which left Tito Rabat twelfth and Isaac Viñales fourteenth. Rhea seemed to be escaped for victory, and the great battle centered between Razgatlioglu and Redding. for the second position. Michael van der Mark, fourth, had the cane on.
Redding was being quite aggressive, looking to stay with that second position, as Rea was definitely in another world. Abandonment for Rabat due to mechanical problems, his bad luck continues. Jonas Folger also crashed when he was about to score very good points for BMW.
Then the race was stopped with a red flag, probably because of the fall of Folger. Victory for Jonathan Rea, who returns to become world leader, ahead of Scott Redding and Toprak Razgatlioglu, while Issac Viñales, the only Spaniard to finish the race, obtained a great eleventh result.
