Yamaha Party At Mandalika After Rea Dominates Two WSBK 2021 Closing Races

Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK rider Jonathan Rea (left) races ahead of other racers (Andika Wahyu/ANTARA)

CENTRAL LOMBOK - Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea won his second victory at the Mandalika Circuit after enduring the onslaught of Aruba.It Ducati's Scott Reading in Race 2 World Superbike on Sunday, November 21.

The race was delayed by an hour and a half due to heavy rain before the start at 15:00 local time. After the track was declared safe and the weather improved, the committee decided to hold a race with a distance of 12 laps from the original 21 laps.

Polesitter Toprak Razgatlioglu was good enough to start the closing race of the season when the track was still quite wet. Rea had slipped to the fifth position after the start but was able to find a gap to improve his position.

Axel Bassani, who was quite competitive in Race 1, fell at the exit of the last corner after colliding with Michael Van Der Mark. After five laps, Redding and Rea were the two dominant drivers in this wet race, leaving behind their opponents after half the race distance as Van Der Mark and Razgatlioglu were 3.5 seconds apart for third place.

Redding took advantage of the main straight with the power of his Ducati bike to overtake Rea for the lead. But the Kawasaki rider stole the gap in the last two corners, restored his position, and won the second race of the day after beating Razgatlioglu in Race 1 this morning.

Van Der Mark completed the podium after finishing 7.4 seconds later defeating the new world champion who had to settle for finishing P4. Van Der Mark's teammate Tom Sykes took his second BMW M 1000 R to fifth, closing his last appearance for the BMW Motorrad team in Mandalika.

At parc ferme Rea changed his motorbike number to 65 because Razgatlioglu is the new WSBK champion this season after securing the title thanks to a runner-up finish in Race 1 on Sunday morning.

Razgatlioglu became the rider who broke Rea's dominant world title streak in the previous six seasons, and became the first Turkish rider to register his name as WSBK world champion.

It was also the first time Yamaha became world champion since Ben Spies won WSBK in 2009. Razgatlioglu ended the season with a 16-point advantage over Rea which meant the Pata Yamaha with Brixx WSBK team was entitled to the team world title.

Yamaha also added to its celebrations today as it won the constructors' title beating Ducati, who is 13 points adrift in second place to sweep three titles in the 2021 season.