Redding fights backs with hard fought Teruel WorldSBK win

2020 WorldSBK Teruel Aragon - Superpole Race Results

Scott Redding clawed back some initiative in the 2020 WorldSBK Championship title fight with a hard fought victory over Jonathan Rea in the Teruel Superpole Race at Motorland Aragon. 

Having seen his championship bid dented by a costly crash in race one, Redding was in frisky form for the 10 lap sprint to catch out Rea on the opening lap before defending hard to the chequered flag.

Indeed, though Rea got the jump into turn one from pole position, Redding swarmed over the back of the Kawasaki through the opening turns before launching an unorthodox and aggressive inside pass as they dipped into the long back straight.

Though Rea attempted to respond over the ensuing laps - leading to the pair getting remarkably close on occasion and even briefly swap positions on lap two - he couldn’t make a move stick on the Ducati man before settling for second in the latter revolutions.

While the win only sees Redding slim Rea’s advantage down to 27 points, it will give him a much needed boost in confidence ahead of this afternoon’s more lucrative second race.

Race one winner Michael Ruben Rinaldi couldn’t quite stay with the fierce pace out front but was still a comfortable third on the Go Eleven Ducati, ahead of Alvaro Bautista, who worked his up to fourth position on the Honda before holding off Chaz Davies on the Ducati over the final couple of laps.

Alex Lowes ran strongly in fourth initially having started down in ninth before fading back to sixth, with Toprak Razgatlioglu’s race following a similar plot as an aggressive start gave way to him playing a rear guard action for seventh.

Leon Haslam and Tom Sykes completed the top nine to assure their place on the third row for race two, with Michael van der Mark missing out on the points in tenth position, together with Yamaha counterparts Loris Baz, Federico Caricasulo and Garrett Gerloff in 11th, 12th and 13th respectively.