Rea and Davies win at Aragon
The British riders dominated, with Rea winning the opener – his fifth of the year -- before race one faller Davies bounced back in the secondJonathan Rea (Kawasaki) has extended his lead in the 2017 Superbike World Championship after claiming a win and second place in the third round at Aragon on April 1-2.
His win on Saturday was his fifth in a row to start the season, with arch-rival Chaz Davies (Ducati) involved in a massive scrap with his fellow Briton before crashing out.
In race two, a highly determined ride from Davies saw the Welshman get his first win of 2017, with Rea and Marco Melandri (Ducati) joining him on the podium.
"Yesterday was a disaster, the whole weekend was a disaster until the last lap of the second race," said Davies. "The only moment of joy is bringing home the win, and it's good to bring it home like that. We know the bike is good here, although we still need to work in a lot of different areas, but for now we are really going to enjoy this and it was a great battle."
Rea, who won the opener from Melandri and teammate Tom Sykes, now leads the championship by 50pts (145 to 95) over Davies, followed by Sykes (91), Melandri (81) and Yamaha's Alex Lowes (65).
Rea said: "I'm really pleased and it's been a really good weekend for us. We have come to a track that's not strong for me on the bike; we put a good Friday in and felt confident.
"To put in a 18 full laps with Chaz yesterday, bar to bar in both races at one of his strongest tracks was no mean feat. And today we had a good battle, so are really happy to get a podium."
WorldSSP: superb victory for Mahias
Lucas Mahias (Yamaha) was the victor in an action-packed WorldSSP race, with Sheridan Morais (Yamaha) and PJ Jacobsen (MV Agusta ) joining the French rider on the podium.
Of the other leading lights, there was drama on lap eight as Federico Caricasulo (Yamaha) was flipped over his bike and the retuning world champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki) was unable to avoid colliding with Caricasulo’s Yamaha.
Kyle Smith (Honda) also crashed out.
Aussies Aiden Wagner (Honda) and Lachlan Epis (Kawasaki) were 17th and 20th, the former struggling with a slipping clutch.
The WorldSBK and WorldSSP grids will be back in action at Assen from April 28-30.
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