Jonathan Rea was penalized for a crash with Alvaro Bautista on the second lap in France
Northern Ireland’s Jonathan Rea was penalized for a crash with title rival Alvaro Bautista in the second major World Superbike race at Magny-Cours.
Rea was handed a long lap penalty for the incident on lap two after his Kawasaki clipped Ducatis Bautista, who retired after the contact.
The Northern Irishman recovered and finished fifth.
Toprak Razgatlioglu won his second race of the day after the Yamaha rider claimed victory in the earlier Superpole race.
The crash between Rea and Bautista happened on the second lap when the two collided en route to a heavy braking zone at the French circuit.
Rea was blamed for the incident and dropped to sixth after serving his sentence, but passed BMW’s Scott Redding in the closing stages to salvage fifth place.
Razgatlioglu won ahead of Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi to cut Bautista’s champion’s lead to 30 points, with Rea trailing the Spaniard by 47 points with five laps to go.
It’s the seventh win in nine races for resurgent Yamaha rider Razgatlioglu, who retired on Saturday before climbing back up to 11th place.
In Sunday’s Superpole race he started fourth and passed Bautista on lap six, with Championship leader holding off Rea in a thrilling final lap duel to finish second.
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