Rea, who had snapped Alvaro Bautista's 11-race winning streak on Saturday, challenged poleman Davies for the lead immediately after the start of the second race of the weekend. He hounded Davies through the first few corners and lunged down the inside of the Ducati into the Tosa left-hander, only to run wide, handing Davies the lead and some breathing room. Yet the Welshman then overshot his braking into the final chicane, badly compromising his run through the corner and dropping behind both Rea and teammate Bautista. The trio ran in formation for the opening half of the short race, but Rea began to make his escape from Bautista around the four-lap mark. A couple of laps later, Davies capitalised on Bautista running wide into Rivazza to overtake the championship leader for second. But Rea was already a second-and-a-half clear by that point, and ultimately arrived at the chequered flag two seconds clear of the Ducati man. Bautista dropped to seven seconds off Rea at the finish, while Yamaha's Michael van der Mark picked up a second consecutive fourth-place finish, halting Toprak Razgatlioglu's spirited early charge. Puccetti Kawasaki rider Razgatlioglu then dramatically slowed in the second half, slipping back to seventh place behind the other Yamaha of Alex Lowes and Rea's teammate Leon Haslam. Tom Sykes started from the pitlane after missing the warm-up lap, but dragged his BMW back up to eighth place at the finish, narrowly beating Pedercini Kawasaki rider Jordi Torres. Sykes' teammate Reiterberger was 10th, just ahead of Go Eleven Ducati stand-in Tommy Bridewell and Ducati wildcard Lorenzo Zanetti. Race results:<doc-sep>Jonathan Rea chose to focus on the positives from his comprehensive return to the top step of the World Superbike podium at Imola this weekend, despite seeing his hopes of a lucrative triple victory scuppered by rain. Demonstrating the form that spurred him onto title success between 2015 and 2018, Rea’s performances in race one and the Superpole race come at a time when he has struggled to respond to Alvaro Bautista’s dominance thus far in 2019. Allowing him to reduce the overall lead from 53 to 43 points, Rea was delighted to get the maximum from the Kawasaki ZX-10RR and defeat his Ducati rival for the first time. “It was a really positive weekend, to get my feeling with the bike here and be able to really get the maximum out of it,” he said. “To pick up two race wins makes me really happy. I want to thank all the team for always believing and keeping on pushing. “We never stopped believing that this weekend was a perfect opportunity for the chance to win. With our form here in the past, the way our bike works here and the way I ride - it was our chance. So we had to take it and I did, in both races.” However, while rivals couldn’t stop Rea this weekend, it was Mother Nature that would intervene instead with a deluge ahead of the final race ultimately forcing organisers to cancel it altogether. Though Rea was visibly disappointed by the decision not to get on track, having contributed to feedback from the safety car as assessments were being taken by officials, he insists he isn’t dwelling on the lost opportunity. “Unfortunately race three was cancelled because of the weather which came in. I completely understand and I am sure we will get our chance again.”<doc-sep>Reigning champion Rea, who is still searching for his first win of the season, led nearly all of FP1 after claiming the lead when the early-session improvements ended. He improved by nearly eight tenths on his early laptime to end the session on top with a 1m46.636s. Rea's only close challenger was Ducati's Davies, who was 0.288s off the pace, with his teammate Alvaro Bautista more than six tenths slower than Rea in third. Davies got even closer to Rea in the afternoon session, even moving ahead of the Northern Irishman for a few minutes in the closing stages before the Kawasaki man came back just as the chequered flag fell. Rea completed the day with a 1m46.374s, beating Davies by 0.155s with BMW's Tom Sykes pushing championship leader Bautista down to fourth place. Puccetti Kawasaki rider Toprak Razgatlioglu was fifth-fastest, with Michael van der Mark the leading Yamaha attack in sixth. Leon Haslam was over one second slower than his works Kawasaki teammate Rea, followed by Alex Lowes (Yamaha) and wildcard Lorenzo Zanetti (Motocorsa Ducati). Zanetti, a former 125cc rider, is making his first appearance in WSBK after spending the 2012 season in the series where he was 17th. The 31-year-old, who has since been competing in World Supersport, completed the top 10 along with fellow Ducati rider Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni). Honda continued to struggle, with Leon Camier going 2.154s slower than Rea in 15th. Eugene Laverty withdrew from the round after a highside crash at Acque Minerale in FP1, which red-flagged the session and left him with both of his wrists fractured. Combined Results Pos. Rider Bike Time Gap 1 Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 1'46.374 2 Chaz Davies Ducati 1'46.529 0.155 3 Tom Sykes BMW 1'46.766 0.392 4 Alvaro Bautista Ducati 1'47.086 0.712 5 Toprak Razgatlioglu Kawasaki 1'47.124 0.750 6 Michael van der Mark Yamaha 1'47.214 0.840 7 Leon Haslam Kawasaki 1'47.419 1.045 8 Alex Lowes Yamaha 1'47.537 1.163 9 Lorenzo Zanetti Ducati 1'47.587 1.213 10 Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 1'47.638 1.264 11 Jordi Torres Kawasaki 1'47.870 1.496 12 Marco Melandri Yamaha 1'47.973 1.599 13 Markus Reiterberger BMW 1'48.113 1.739 14 Sandro Cortese Yamaha 1'48.457 2.083 15 Leon Camier Honda 1'48.528 2.154 16 Ryuichi Kiyonari Honda 1'49.099 2.725 17 Hector Barbera Kawasaki 1'49.274 2.900 18 Alessandro Delbianco Honda 1'50.063 3.689 19 Eugene Laverty Ducati 1'51.747 5.373<doc-sep>Jonathan Rea carved his first dent into Alvaro Bautista’s lead at Imola with two wins from the two completed races giving his seemingly dwindling World Superbike Championship title hopes a welcome – and timely – boost. Though rain stopped play to prevent Rea from attempting a triple success from pole position, his wins in race one and the sprint race, combined with Bautista’s second and third, sees him whittle the margin down to 43 points. Despite the crushing disappointment of his race one DNF on the first lap, Davies’ pole position and sprint race second place ahead of Aruba.it Ducati team-mate Bautista – the first time he has qualified and finished ahead of the Spaniard this year – will come as a big confidence boost for the Welshman. Hampered by illness this weekend, Alex Lowes nonetheless soldiered on for two well deserved top eight results to retain third overall, with Michael van der Mark going on to fly the Yamaha flag at a track not renowned for suiting the R1. They sit six points apart in the overall classification. Leon Haslam loses ground in fifth overall after a disappointing weekend, ahead of the much-improved Davies, who rises to sixth at the expense of Marco Melandri, who endured an anonymous weekend in Italy. A podium winner in race one, Toprak Razgatlioglu was one of the weekend’s big winners’, leaping from 11thto eighth overall on the Puccetti Kawasaki, ahead of Sandro Cortese and Tom Sykes, the latter not scoring the points he deserved after a DNF from race one forced him to start from the pit-lane in race two. The BMW man produced a stellar charge to eighth in ten laps, only to see his race three hopes scuppered by the cancellation. Elsewhere, Lorenzo Zanetti, Hector Barbera and Tommy Bridewell are new to the leaderboard after scoring in race one at Imola. A particularly impressive result by Bridewell, the BSB front runner only rode the Go Eleven Ducati on Saturday morning but finished 12thin race one. Going on to finish 11thin a race of no retirements in the sprint race, though that didn’t earn him points, he’d have been well placed to a top ten in race three but for the cancellation. With no clashes between WSBK and BSB until July, it’s possible Bridewell could get a stay on the bike at Jerez should Eugene Laverty doesn’t return until full fitness.<doc-sep>
While Davies kept the lead from the fast-starting Rea at Turn 1, the latter made a move stick at the Villeneuve right-hander before the Ducati rider's bike slowed down a few corners later. Davies' retirement made his teammate Alvaro Bautista as Rea's main rival, but the Spaniard did not have the pace to win for the first time this year. Rea quickly pulled away and was faster than Bautista throughout the race, cruising to the finish to win by 7.8 seconds after giving up nearly three seconds on the last two laps. Bautista had a lonely race in second with Tom Sykes also looking set to comfortably take third for BMW before he had to retire with a mechanical problem. That promoted the group behind to the fight for the final podium position. It was initially led by Yamaha duo Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark but the former, struggling with illness, later dropped out of the fight. Van der Mark held off the Kawasakis of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Leon Haslam for a while but the Turkish rider made a move soon after Sykes retired. Razgatlioglu was closely followed by van der Mark for most of the race, but the duo began fighting in the late stages. The Dutchman was slightly wide and unsuccessful when he tried to make a move at Rivazza, but he then passed Razgatlioglu at Tamburello on the penultimate lap. Razgatlioglu however was back in third at Tosa, a position he held on to throughout the final lap. The Dutchman instead focused on defending from Haslam, whose two mistakes at Variante Alta kept him out of the fight for several laps. Haslam ultimately had to settle for fifth as Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) led Lowes for sixth. Barni Ducati's Michael Ruben Rinaldi recovered from a big qualifying crash to eighth, followed by Ducati wildcard Lorenzo Zanetti and BMW's Markus Reiterbeger. Tommy Bridewell (Go Eleven Ducati), who is replacing the injured Eugene Laverty, finished 12th in his first WSBK appearance in almost a decade. Sandro Cortese crashed out at Turn 12 while Leon Camier did not take the start after he injured his shoulder in a qualifying accident. Race results: