World champion edges out Ducati duo in another tight one.
Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jonathan Rea has done the double, winning today’s World Superbike race two clash at Phillip Island in a nail-biting finish against arch-rival, Ducati’s Chaz Davies.
It was an intense battle for 22 laps and it all boiled down to an extremely tight duel between Rea and fellow Briton Davies on the final lap.
This time Rea kept his arch-rival at bay by 0.025s, with his combined winning margin over Davies in the two races just 0.067 seconds this weekend.
It’s the second-consecutive clean-sweep for Rea at the 4.445km grand prix circuit and he now joins Carl Fogarty, Aussie Troy Bayliss and Noriyuki Haga in the exclusive WorldSBK ’40s’ winning club.
Davies’ teammate Marco Melandri made amends for a crash in race one with an excellent third position, 0.249s behind Rea, while Alex Lowes made it two fourth places on his Yamaha.
Spaniard Xavi Fores (Ducati) was also in the thick of the front-running action before finishing fifth, ahead of Tom Sykes (Kawasaki), Michael van der Mark (Yamaha), Leon Camier (MV Agusta), Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) and Eugene Laverty (Aprilia).
It was an inspired showing from local wildcard Josh Brookes (ER Motorsports Yamaha) to finish 12th, after almost missing the second race altogether this afternoon.