Jonathan Rea became the first rider since Neil Hodgson in 2003 to win the opening four races of a season, after the Kawasaki rider dominated Sunday’s fragmented second outing in Thailand.
At the start, Ducati’s Marco Melandri led away from pole, whilst Jonathan Rea and the sister Aruba bike of Chaz Davies ploughed through to the front from row three in just a few corners.
Davies’ charge was halted on lap three when he fell off after running onto the dirty part of the track at Turn 3. With Rea moving ahead of Melandri at the end of the following tour, Davies championship challenge looked set to take a huge knock.
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However, Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori suffered a big highside at the final corner at the end of the fifth lap and left oil on the circuit. The led to the race being red-flagged and throwing Davies a lifeline.
The race was re-run over 16 laps, and it was Rea who took the hoelshot into the first turn. Unlike Saturday’s race, Rea had Melandri on his tail for a good number of laps, the Italian briefly holding the lead at one stage.
But, as the race wore on, the Kawasaki rider steadily edged away and found himself just over four seconds up the road by the time he reached the chequered flag.
Behind, Melandri had been reeled in by Rea’s team-mate Tom Sykes, the Italian once again suffering from brake fade. As he did yesterday, Sykes dived up the inside into final corner to steal second away from the Ducati rider.
Yamaha’s Alex Lowes came home a lonely but impressive fourth for the third time this season, while BMW’s Jordi Torres held Davies at bay to complete the top five. The Welshman’s woes see him drop 30 points adrift of Rea.
Honda’s Nicky Hayden put some more points on the board in seventh, with Xavi Fores, Roman Ramos and Markus Reiterberger rounding out the top 10.
Alex De Angelis capitalised on the misfortunes of others to bring his Pedercini Kawasaki home in 11th, with Ricardo Russo, Ondrej Jezek, Ayrton Badovini and the luckless Eugene Laverty, who slid off his Aprilia at Turn 5 whilst running in fifth, completing the points positions.
MV Agusta’s Leon Camier was running well inside the top 10 when his bike started smoking with seven laps to go, forcing him into retirement a lap later.
Randy Krummenacher and Stefan Bradl also failed to make the finish, while Michael van der Mark didn’t make the restart due to an oil leak on his Yamaha.
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