Rea Takes Another Double Win At Assen

Jonathan Rea took another victory today in the second 21-lap FIM World Superbike Championship race at Assen, making it a consecutive double win with the Ninja ZX-10R at the Dutch circuit.  In a race that started wet, Rea and his Kawasaki team chose the perfect strategy and, after making a pit stop to change tyres, he led the field home with team-mate Tom Sykes second and Michael Van Der Mark (Honda) in third.

At the start of the race, in fully wet track conditions, Sykes took the lead from his pole position grid placing with Rea running in fifth place after the first lap.  With riders adapting to the drying track conditions Rea briefly led the race on lap eight before entering the pits for a tyre change.  That put him down to 14th place but over the next few laps, as the grip levels improved and most of the riders ahead pitted to change tyres Rea rapidly moved through the field.

 

With Sykes closing in, Rea took over the lead of the race on lap 14.  However, his team-mate had made a different tyre choice and in the end Rea took victory by 2.442 seconds.  This was his second double race win and fifth of the season so far, extending his Championship lead to 45 points over closest rival, Chaz Davies (Duacti), who finished fifth today.

 

The series now moves to another happy hunting ground for Jonathan at Imola in Italy, over the weekend of 29th April – 1st May.  

 

Jonathan Rea stated: “Our target this weekend was to increase our championship lead and we did that. I said to Pere my crew chief before the start of the race that the track should dry out pretty fast. We have had previous experiences like that. I have no idea why I go so well at Assen. It is nothing to do with the track itself. We got a double victory but it was not like Australia where I had more pace than the rest. We controlled the situations this weekend when we had to, we were calm and clever when we had to be, and as a team our strength shone through to get two strong results. We got the maximum from what we could achieve here so I am super, super, happy with that. Our stars aligned this weekend and it worked out, so I am just happy.”

Pole position : Tom Sykes - 1m 35.440 - 171.324 km/h
Fastest lap : Jonathan Rea - 1m 37.706 - 167.351 km/h
Circuit record lap : 2015 Jonathan Rea - 1m 35.889 170.520 km/h
Circuit Best Lap : 2014 Loris Baz - 1m 34.357 173.290 km/h
Crowd : 50,437
Temperature : Air 9°C / Track 16°C
Humidity : 70%

Event results - Round 4 - Race 1
1 Jonathan Rea 38m 02.779 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Tom Sykes 2.442 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
3 Michael van der Mark 15.189 NED HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
4 Lorenzo Savadori 25.507 ITA APRILIA IodaRacing Team
5 Chaz Davies 30.853 GBR DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team
6 Nicky Hayden 36.458 USA HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
7 Alex Lowes 39.263 GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
8 Davide Giugliano 46.789 ITA DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team
9 Leon Camier 1m 05.023 GBR MV AGUSTA MV Agusta Reparto Corse
10 Xavi Fores 1m 05.468 ESP DUCATI BARNI Racing Team
11 Sylvain Guintoli 1m 24.948 FRA YAMAHA Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team
12 Roman Ramos 1m 35.035 ESP KAWASAKI Team Go Eleven
13 Lucas Mahias 1 Lap FRA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
14 Karel Abraham 1 Lap CZE BMW Milwaukee BMW
15 Jordi Torres 1 Lap ESP BMW Althea BMW Racing Team
16 Markus Reiterberber 1 Lap GER BMW Althea BMW Racing Team
17 Matthieu Lussiana 1 Lap FRA BMW Team ASPI
18 Pawel Szkopek 1 Lap POL YAMAHA Szkopek POLand Position
19 Peter Sebestyen 2 Laps HUN YAMAHA Team Toth
20 Dominic Schmitter 2 Laps SUI KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
21 Joshua Brookes DNF AUS BMW Milwaukee BMW
22 Matteo Baiocco DNF ITA DUCATI VFT Racing
23 Josh Hook DNF AUS KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
Championship standings
1 Jonathan Rea 181 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Chaz Davies 136 pts GBR DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team
3 Tom Sykes 122 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
4 Michael van der Mark 90 pts NED HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
5 Nicky Hayden 67 pts USA HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
6 Jordi Torres 65 pts ESP BMW Althea BMW Racing Team
7 Davide Giugliano 64 pts ITA DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team
8 Sylvain Guintoli 58 pts FRA YAMAHA Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team
9 Lorenzo Savadori 47 pts ITA APRILIA IodaRacing Team
10 Alex Lowes 44 pts GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
11 Markus Reiterberber 40 pts GER BMW Althea BMW Racing Team
12 Leon Camier 39 pts GBR MV AGUSTA MV Agusta Reparto Corse
13 Xavi Fores 37 pts ESP DUCATI BARNI Racing Team
14 Roman Ramos 36 pts ESP KAWASAKI Team Go Eleven
15 Alex De Angelis 29 pts RSM APRILIA IodaRacing Team
16 Joshua Brookes 25 pts AUS BMW Milwaukee BMW
17 Karel Abraham 14 pts CZE BMW Milwaukee BMW
18 Lucas Mahias 9 pts FRA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
19 Matteo Baiocco 8 pts ITA DUCATI VFT Racing
20 Mike Jones 2 pts AUS DUCATI Desmo Sport Ducati
21 Sylvain Barrier 2 pts FRA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
22 Matthieu Lussiana 1 pts FRA BMW Team ASPI
23 Anucha Nakcharoensri 0 pts THA YAMAHA Yamaha Thailand Racing Team
24 Sahustchai Kaewjaturapom 0 pts THA KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
25 Saeed Al Sulaiti 0 pts QAR KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
26 Peter Sebestyen 0 pts HUN YAMAHA Team Toth
27 Pawel Szkopek 0 pts POL YAMAHA Szkopek POLand Position
28 Josh Hook 0 pts AUS KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team
29 Imre Toth 0 pts HUN YAMAHA Team Toth
30 Dominic Schmitter 0 pts SUI KAWASAKI Grillini SBK Team