World superbikes - Rea denied triple success in Portgual by Bautista

Published 08/09/2019 at 19:30 GMT

Jonathan Rea was denied a hat-trick of wins at the Portugal World Superbike Championship by Alvaro Bautista.

Alvaro Bautista wins in Portimao as Jonathan Rea edges closer to to title (SNTV)

Image credit: Eurosport

Rea won race one on Saturday, then Sunday's Superpole sprint race but Bautista from second on the grid overcame a bad start to beat his rival by 0.11 seconds.

Bautista remains a distant 91 points behind Rea in the overall series standings despite now having won 15 races this year, four more than the defending champion.

The Spaniard won the first 11 races of the season before crashing in four consecutive rounds and Rea has now won eight of the ten races.

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