Jonathan Rea has 🥃taken his and Kawasaki’s first victory of the season durin🐷g a damp opening race at the 2023 Czech Republic WorldSBK round.

Rea correctly picked intermediate t🦹yres for the tricky conditions and, although the Ulsterma🦋n couldn’t match the fastest wet tyre riders early on, was in a class of his own relative to the others on intermediates.

That meant when conditions improved and the wet riders were forced to pit, Rea was handed a huge 12-second lead, which he managed to the fin🅰ish - despite the late efforts of Toprak Razgatlioglu.

It was six-time world champion Rea’s first win since Phillip Island 2022. He and Razgatlioglu were joined on the podium by Danilo Petrucci, celebrating his second WorldSBK rostrum, while title leader Alvaro Bautista could only finish in 𓆏12th.

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📖This afternoon’s race was the first wet running since Friday’s moist FP1, when only half the field had set a lap time, making the contest a real leap into the unknown.

Tyre choice was the first decis༒ion, title leader Alvaro Bautista (seventh on the grid) among 𒐪those going for full wets but the likes of pole starter Razgatlioglu, Rea and Barni Ducati's Petrucci picking intermediates.

When the red lights went out, the wet runners went straight on🧸 the attack - Axel Bassani snatching the holeshot&nb🥀sp;with Remy Gardner, Alvaro Bautista and Xavi Verge in pursuit by the end of lap 1.

Rea was the top rider on the inters in fifthꩲ with Razgatlioglu plummeti🔯ng to 12th.

Aware of how fast the track had dried on Friday morning, Bassani - demoted to row two on the grid after being one of many to lose a lap due to a yellow flag infringemen🅠t in Superpole - kept pushing hard and quickly bolted to an 8 second lead over Gardner.

But the young Italian was far 🍎safe with Rea soon on the move, carving his way into second while some ‘wet’ riders further down the orde💫r began pitting for slicks with 18 laps still to go.

Big names like Bautista and Gardner followed, with Bassani acknowledging the inevitable and yielding the le𓃲ad by pitting for dry rubber with𒈔 16 laps to go (rejoining in 14th).

Bassani’s detour put Rea into the lead by 12 seꦺconds from Scott Redding with Petrucci, Andrea Locatelli, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Iker Lecuona completing the top six.

But all eyes were on the likes of Bassani and Bautista, to see how much of an advღantage their slick tyres would provide.

Bassani, in eleventh, was gaining around three seconds a lap – nowhere near enough to catch Rea - w🃏hile title🍨 leader Bautista was up to 13th place with 13 laps to go… then ran wide at turn one.

Just as the slick victory hope🔥s collapsed, Razgatlioglu surged back into contention, passing Petrucci for second and setting lap times 1.5s quicker th𝓀an Rea, now 11 seconds ahead with 10 laps to go.

The Pata Yamaha🎃 star continued to close in, but Rea - running softer settings - respo🔯nded to stay comfortably out of reach to the flag.

Behind Petr🧸ucci, BMW's Scott Redding mat🙈ched his best finish of the season in fourth ahead of Lecuona (Honda), Locatelli, Dominique Aegerter and early hero Bassani.

Bautista crossed the line in 12th, by ⭕far his worst finish since rejoining Ducati at the start of last year and reducing his title lead to 54 points over Razgatli🍌oglu...

Most World Superbike records

Fastest Lap: Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki Racing Team 1:30.947s

Most Wins: Toprak Razgatlioglu TUR Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK (4)

2022 Race Winners

Race 1: Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati

Superpole Race: Toprak Razgatlioglu TUR Pata Y✨amaha Prometeon WorldSBK

Race 2: Toprak Razgatli🤪oglu TUR Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK

Remaining 2023 Weekend Schedule (UK time):

Sunday:

Warm-up - 08:00-08:15

Superpole Race - 10:00

Race 2 - 13:00