Incredible drama as Rea wins and other top riders go out

Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) took his second race win of the season after an incident-strewn race at Donington. On the first corner Carlos Checa (Althea Racing Ducati) and Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) touched and Checa went down, taking out Jakub Smrz (Liberty Racing Team Effenbert Ducati) and Checa's team-mate Davide Giugliano.

Then Laverty crashed down Craner Curves, as up front eventual third place man Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) led for most of the race distance. He was finally mugged by a warring faction which included eventual second place man Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) and both BMW Motorrad Motorsport Riders, Leon Haslam and Marco Melandri. After a multitude of overtakes and riders running off track on occasion, Haslam looked to have it won until both he and Melandri ran wide at the very last corner and Rea pushed inside. They collided and Haslam fell, knocking off Melandri as he slid on the track. Rea held on to win by just over half a second from Biaggi, with Sykes two second back. Leon Camier (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) was an impressive fourth.

In the championship, the final dramas mean that Biaggi has 128.5 points, Sykes 123.5, Rea 108, Checa 105.5 and Melandri 97.5.

More Info: WORLD SBK