Jonathan Rea becomes first rider in Superbikes history to reach 100 race wins at MotorLand Aragon

ByEurosport

Published 22/05/2021 at 13:24 GMT

Jonathan Rea became the first man to win 100 races in a single class of FIM road racing world championships at MotorLand Aragón on Saturday. The six-time world champion could not be caught as he went on to cement his place in superbikes history in the opening race of the 2021 Superbikes season.

'Mr record breaker' - Rea wins milestone 100th race

Jonathan Rea became the first rider in Superbikes history to reach 100 wins at Motorland Aragon on Saturday.

Rea completed a Kawasaki one-two, finishing in a time of 33'24.225. Alex Lowes finished second on the podium (+3.965) with Yamaha's Toprak Razgatlioglu (+4.008) in third.

The six-time world champion was under pressure from Lowes early on, but held his lead for the entirety of the race.

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Razgatlioglu kept the pressure on Lowes in the battle for second and was lapping faster than Rea on the final five laps, but he could not apply enough pressure late on to climb into a higher position.

Lowes crept in front of the Turkish rider on the final corner before edging the drag race to the line.

"What a race," Rea said afterwards.

"I just felt that from the start I really wanted it. I put my head down and it just came.

"The rhythm at the beginning was good and I was going away not too stressed, but then at the end I was surprised how much everybody was dropping. I felt really slow, but the gap was increasing so what a way to be in the race. It doesn't happen like that normally.

"To reach 100 victories is a career milestone. I'm so happy with that, to do it here at superbikes is amazing."