THE GLORIOUSLY hot sun followed the WorldSBK caravan as it decamped from Motorland Aragon and reassembled itself in the Algarve coast of Portugal. But things were serious this time.
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba Ducati) was in his first potential title-winning position and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon) needed to stop him. Jonathan Rea (KRT) wants to win at least one more time on a Kawasaki before leaving for Yamaha and, at a track he loves dearly, now was his chance.
Rea took his third pole of the season, and this time his recently operated-on teammate Alex Lowes was right behind him. The final Superpole order was chopped and changed due to yellow flags and other infringements, but it mattered little when the first few laps of Race 1 quickly descended into entertaining anarchy inside the top six places.
Rea had
