Jonathan Rea claimed his eleventh World Superbike victory at Assen after a nail-biting finish with team-mate Tom Sykes in race two. The reigning champion recovered from a mid-race error to hold off Sykes who narrowly missed out on his first win of 2017.
After finishing fourth in race one, Xavi Fores started from pole position for the first time but the Spaniard soon plummeted down the order, not enjoying the same impressive race pace as Saturday. In fact, the two factory Kawasakis had already scythed their way to the front of the field by the end of lap five while Chaz Davies became an increasingly distant threat in third.
At half distance, Rea appeared to have the race under control but an error at Duikersloot saw almost a second slip away, bringing the no.66 right back onto his tail. Sykes would shadow the world champion through the remaining laps and looked to have judged his exit from the final chicane perfectly, only to miss out by 0.025s in a photo finish.
Davies took third to salvage a podium from a difficult weekend while Michael van der Mark gave his home crowd something to cheer with fourth, equalling his best result of the season. Alex Lowes followed in fifth as Yamaha bounced back from their double-DNF in race one while Leon Camier took a superb sixth for MV Agusta.
Jordi Torres was seventh ahead of Eugene Laverty who briefly led in the early stages before the race one podium finishers picked their way through. The top ten was completed by the two Red Bull Hondas of Nicky Hayden and Stefan Bradl.
WorldSBK 2017: Acerbis Dutch Round – Race One Result
[table id=1937 /]
