The 2021 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship title race took a dramatic twist in Race 1 at the Autodrom Most on Saturday as racing action for the Tissot Czech Round got underway. Championship leader Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) crashed out of third place as the race entered its final third, before remounting and then crashing again, this time heavily at Turn 20 with four laps to go.

Rea’s race got underway to a bright start and despite being outdone to the first turn on Lap 1, he remained right in the fight in the leading positions. After an attempt to pass Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) for the lead went a wrong at Turn 18, he soon found himself back in third, as Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) came through. Chasing Razgatlioglu, Rea tucked the front on Lap 14 at Turn 1, but was able to remount, although he would then crash again at the fast Turn 20. This combined with a spectacular win for Razgatlioglu in a last lap head-to-head with Redding, means that his lead in the Championship is slashed from 37 to 12.

Talking about the crashes, Rea said: “The first crash was at Turn 1. The bike was a little bit bent but I decided to carry on, I could see I was in a points-scoring position. Step by step, I kept doing my rhythm. Entering the penultimate corner, I just touched some bumps or something on the track from a previous crash and I just lost the front. I was not cruising, but not pushing, so really frustrated with that. Frustrated with the first mistake, of course because I was comfortable in the group with Toprak and Scott. I could see Scott wasn’t going away. I was faster than Toprak in some areas, and he was faster than me in others, but I just couldn’t make a pass really. Not getting frustrated but just trying to understand what I could do. Then the race settled down… I made a mistake.”

Rea, who was in position for a 200^th podium and potentially another victory, will have another bite at the cherry on Sunday, as he will aim for Tissot Superpole Race glory to maintain his pole position. With a 12-point lead over Razgatlioglu in the Championship and with Redding finishing in second, the gap back to the Ducati rider is now 61. In the manufacturers’ Championship, Kawasaki’s best finisher was Isaac Viñales (ORELAC Racing VerdNatura) in 12^th, whilst Yamaha won, meaning Kawasaki lead the way by just six points, with Ducati a further eight behind in third. It’s the first time that there’s been no Kawasaki in the top ten since Aragon in 2012’s Race 1, when all four Kawasakis in the race retired.

Talking about what the result means in the context of the Championship, Rea called for calm: “The Championship is long. We’re at round six now and there’s still a lot of races to go. I’m not thinking about the Championship, there’s no urgency to do anything. You can see from Donington, or today, how quickly the Championship can change because it’s uncharacteristic but it’s part of racing. I’m really pushing my Ninja ZX-10RR on the limit to be with the Yamaha and Ducati. We need to try and improve some areas to give some more margin before this limit.

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