Pata Honda rider Jonathan Rea took victory in a shortened, wet second race in round eight of the 2014 World Superbike championship at the Autodromo Internacional Algarve in Portugal.

The 27-year-old British rider was never headed in the race, which was reduced from a scheduled 20 to 18 laps after rain fell on the 4.592km Portimao circuit. At mid-race, Rea saw a comfortable lead reduced by the two factory Aprilias but they both crashed out on lap 13, leaving the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP rider to cruise home almost seven seconds ahead of Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies.

The win marked Rea’s eighth podium at Portimao in the seven years that SBK has been visiting the circuit, but it was his first victory here. It followed a fifth place in the first 20-lap race, won by Tom Sykes, in which Rea was badly affected by low rear grip after leading on the opening laps.

His Pata Honda team-mate Leon Haslam finished fifth in the wet race two, after a strong challenge for the final podium position faded in the closing two laps. The 31-year-old was taken out of race one by another rider but remounted to finish in 11th place at the flag.

Jonathan Rea: “I was really disappointed after race one because we had good pace in warm-up this morning; but I’m not sure if it was the tyre or not because we had changed nothing on the bike. When I heard the rain coming on my motorhome roof as I watched a bit of the Tour de France ahead of race two, I started getting a little bit giddy and singing as I was getting changed! I knew that it was a chance for me. I tried to do my own race from the front but I saw from my lap board that the Aprilias had better pace at the middle point of the race. The track had started to dry out a bit and we were really suffering with corner exit but, although the conditions were a great leveller for all riders, it’s nice to take a win. I’d prefer to take it in the dry and we can’t get too excited because it’s a wet win; but we’ll take them any way we can and it’s 25 points not just for me but for the whole team. They’re consistently working so, so hard to bring the package to the front, and they gave me a really great, user-friendly CBR to ride today, so I’m really happy for them.

Leon Haslam: “It's been a frustrating weekend because we've made some progress but we were able to translate that into results in the race. I had a problem on the qualifying tyre in Superpole and that left me in ninth place on the grid which wasn't ideal. I was going OK in race one but Chaz (Davies) cut back across the line after he ran wide in turn five and that was the race done really. In the wet, I felt I could challenge for a podium in the middle part of the race but it didn't work out that way and I think that fifth was not a good reward for the effort we've put in here.”