Pata Honda rider Jonathan Rea took victory in a shortened, wet second race in round eight of the 2014 World Superbike championship at the Autodromo Internacional Algarve in Portugal today.

The 27-year-old British rider was never headed in the race, which was reduced from a scheduled 20 to 18 laps after rain fell on the 4.592km Portimao circuit. At mid-race, Rea saw a comfortable lead reduced by the two factory Aprilias but they both crashed out on lap 13, leaving the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP rider to cruise home almost seven seconds ahead of Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies.

The win marked Rea’s eighth podium at Portimao in the seven years that SBK has been visiting the circuit, but it was his first victory here. It followed a fifth place in the first 20-lap race, won by Tom Sykes, in which Rea was badly affected by low rear grip after leading on the opening laps.

His Pata Honda team-mate Leon Haslam finished fifth in the wet race two, after a strong challenge for the final podium position faded in the closing two laps. The 31-year-old was taken out of race one by another rider but remounted to finish in 11th place at the flag.

There is a quick turnaround for the World Superbike championship, which reassembles next weekend for round nine at the Laguna Seca Raceway in California, USA before an eight-week summer break.


Jonathan Rea - 5th and 1st

I was really disappointed after race one because we had good pace in warm-up this morning; but I’m not sure if it was the tyre or not because we had changed nothing on the bike. When I heard the rain coming on my motorhome roof as I watched a bit of the Tour de France ahead of race two, I started getting a little bit giddy and singing as I was getting changed! I knew that it was a chance for me. I tried to do my own race from the front but I saw from my lap board that the Aprilias had better pace at the middle point of the race. The track had started to dry out a bit and we were really suffering with corner exit but, although the conditions were a great leveller for all riders, it’s nice to take a win. I’d prefer to take it in the dry and we can’t get too excited because it’s a wet win; but we’ll take them any way we can and it’s 25 points not just for me but for the whole team. They’re consistently working so, so hard to bring the package to the front, and they gave me a really great, user-friendly CBR to ride today, so I’m really happy for them.

Leon Haslam - 11th and 5th

It's been a frustrating weekend because we've made some progress but we were able to translate that into results today. I had a problem on the qualifying tyre in Superpole and that left me in ninth place on the grid which wasn't ideal. I was going OK in race one but Chaz [Davies] cut back across the line after he ran wide in turn five and that was the race done really. In the wet, I felt I could challenge for a podium in the middle part of the race but it didn't work out that way and I think that fifth was not a good reward for the effort we've put in here.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

Jonathan took the lead at the start of race one but immediately his grip dropped and he finished fifth, which was a bit disappointing. I think that with a better tyre he could have been on the podium. He had a start-to-finish win in race two and he rode really strong. Unfortunately for them, the Aprilias retired but we gained some points back on the championship leaders so we’ll just keep chipping away. Leon had some bad luck in race one when another rider caused him to crash but he fought back for some points. He was fighting for third in the second race but had to let it go and he finished fifth. But it has been his strongest weekend with us so far and we’ve found a way up in the wet and the dry so we’re looking forward to Laguna.

Event results - Round 8- Race 1

1 Tom Sykes 34m45.568s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Sylvain Guintoli 2.539 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Loris Baz 3.175 FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
4 Marco Melandri 4.042 ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
5 Jonathan Rea 7.791 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
6 Alex Lowes 14.772 GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
7 Davide Giugliano 14.877 ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
8 Eugene Laverty 14.941 IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
9 David Salom 26.018 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
10 Sylvain Barrier 26.032 FRA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
11 Leon Haslam 33.041 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
12 Jeremy Guarnoni 38.385 FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
13 Niccolo Canepa 42.237 ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
14 Riccardo Russo 47.908 ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
15 Alessandro Andreozzi 1'03.502 ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
16 Aaron Yates 1 Lap USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
17 Gabor Rizmayer 1 Lap HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
18 Chaz Davies 5 Laps GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
19 Bryan Staring DNF AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
20 Peter Sebestyen DNF HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
21 Sheridan Morais DNF RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
22 Toni Elias DNF SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
23 Fabien Foret DNF FRA KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
24 Geoff May DNF USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
25 Ayrton Badovini DNF ITA BIMOTA Team Alstare
26 Christian Iddon DNF GBR BIMOTA Team Alstare

Event results - Round 8- Race 2

1 Jonathan Rea 34m55.154s GBR HONDA Pata Honda
2 Davide Giugliano 6.817 ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
3 Chaz Davies 8.676 GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
4 Alex Lowes 9.740 GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
5 Leon Haslam 11.289 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
6 Loris Baz 11.808 FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
7 Sylvain Guintoli 14.169 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
8 Tom Sykes 17.164 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
9 Eugene Laverty 26.406 IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
10 Toni Elias 30.168 SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
11 Sylvain Barrier 41.820 FRA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
12 Sheridan Morais 47.434 RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
13 Jeremy Guarnoni 50.045 FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
14 Bryan Staring 1'17.436 AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
15 Riccardo Russo 1'24.500 ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
16 Alessandro Andreozzi 1'30.563 ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
17 David Salom 1'34.242 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
18 Niccolo Canepa 1'34.647 ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
19 Gabor Rizmayer 1'47.422 HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
20 Marco Melandri DNF ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
21 Geoff May DNF USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
22 Aaron Yates DNF USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
23 Peter Sebestyen DNF HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
24 Ayrton Badovini DNF ITA BIMOTA Team Alstare
25 Christian Iddon DNF GBR BIMOTA Team Alstare

Championship standings

1 Tom Sykes 284 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Sylvain Guintoli 241 pts FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Loris Baz 236 pts FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
4 Jonathan Rea 235 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
5 Marco Melandri 192 pts ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
6 Chaz Davies 159 pts GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
7 Davide Giugliano 140 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
8 Eugene Laverty 121 pts IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
9 Toni Elias 115 pts SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
10 Leon Haslam 115 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
11 Alex Lowes 111 pts GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
12 David Salom 74 pts ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
13 Niccolo Canepa 46 pts ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
14 Leon Camier 30 pts GBR BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
15 Jeremy Guarnoni 26 pts FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
16 Sylvain Barrier 17 pts FRA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
17 Luca Scassa 16 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
18 Sheridan Morais 14 pts RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
19 Fabien Foret 14 pts FRA KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
20 Claudio Corti 13 pts ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
21 Alessandro Andreozzi 10 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
22 Glen Allerton 6 pts AUS BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
23 Riccardo Russo 5 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
24 Kervin Bos 5 pts NED HONDA Winteb LiquidRubber Racing T.
25 Bryan Staring 5 pts AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
26 Michel Fabrizio 2 pts ITA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
27 Imre Toth 2 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
28 Roamin Lanusse 1 pts FRA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
29 Peter Sebestyen 0 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
30 Geoff May 0 pts USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
31 Gabor Rizmayer 0 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
32 Christian Iddon 0 pts GBR BIMOTA Team Alstare
33 Aaron Yates 0 pts USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR

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