win by almost 10 seconds.
From Rea, naturally.
Redding needed a big win and
took it bravely. "It was not plain
sailing," said Redding. "It was an
up-and-down weekend for us. I
hope going on to Estoril that we
can smooth that out a little bit,
find our footing and make good
progress."
The most amazing thing in the
Rea-Redding final race dynamic
was that Rea was actually off
track for a time, as Gerloff
looked up the inside and said he
got caught out. But, in any case,
he went into the downhill chi-
cane and took Rea off track, but
Rea still finished second.
fourth, but a recovering Michael
van der Mark was a strong fifth
after a tough first race on Friday,
taking a confidence-boosting
finish on the new BMW M 1000
RR.
On full wets, Redding was
only eighth, a near disaster for
his championship, even at this
stage. He chose wets when in-
termediates would have worked
better, as they did for a few
others.
For "race two," meaning the
final 18-lap race in the wet build
up, Redding asking for slicks. It
seemed mad to some but there
he went, out in front after a
steady few laps to record a clear
some people even broke a rule
of WorldSBK racing and used
Pirelli's intermediates to win. Few
tire manufacturers even bother
with intermediates now, but most
rider were more than happy
with that choice here, including
Sprint-race winner Rea.
Lowes battled his way to sec-
ond again, this time well ahead
of third-place rider Garrett Gerl-
off (GRT Yamaha) on his factory
bike in an independent team.
Davies was off podium again
ROAD RACE
FIM WORLDSBK CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 1 / MAY 21-23, 2021
MOTORLAND ARAGON / TERUEL, SPAIN
P80
Michael van der Mark (60) showed
some promising signs of speed on
the new BMW M 1000 RR, fighting
up the front in race two.
