Rea keeps clear of Bautista charge for sprint race win

Full WorldSBK Sprint Race results from Portimao

Jonathan Rea has produced another lights-to-flag victory in the Superpole sprint race at Portimao as Alvaro Bautista charged through the pack to claim his first podium finish in five races.

While the reigning World Superbike champion was untroubled at the front to claim his 11^th win of the season so far, Bautista put in a damage limitation ride to take second place having been down in ninth on the opening lap of the 10-lap sprint race.

Bautista used the acceleration and top speed of his Aruba.it Racing Ducati to charge past riders ahead of him on the start/finish straight, overtaking Leon Haslam and Tom Sykes in one move, to climb to second but couldn’t bridge the gap to Rea with the Kawasaki rider now leading the standings by 96 points.

Alex Lowes claimed his first rostrum since the Misano sprint race in third place for Pata Yamaha, losing second to Bautista at the start of the final lap, with Toprak Razgatlioglu further back in fourth place for Puccetti Kawasaki.

Leon Haslam faded to fifth place but kept clear of Michael van der Mark who struggled to carve up the order in the opening laps for Pata Yamaha.

Tom Sykes endured another late-race fade to drop from second to seventh place for BMW with Sandro Cortese in eighth place.

With Loris Baz in ninth place, Chaz Davies suffered a nightmare sprint race finishing in 10^th place snd missing out on the points, meaning the factory Ducati rider will start the second feature race from 14^th place due to the new World Superbike rules.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi grabbed 11^th for Barni Ducati ahead of Jordi Torres, Marco Melandri and Markus Reiterberger as Eugene Laverty rounded out the top 15.

With Leandro Mercado in 16^th, Takumi Takahashi led the Honda effort in 17^th with Sylvain Barrier in 18^th on the wildcard entry.

Alessandro Delbianco and Ryuichi Kiyonari completed the finishers as every rider reached the chequered flag.