Reigning world champion Jonathan Rea had an unbelievable second day in the Portuguese Round, as utterly dominated the field in the opening race of the weekend, whilst his team-mate Tom Sykes was forced to sit out of the race following a crash in FP3.

Rea started from pole position after setting a pole position time of 1.41.430, and when the lights went out he didn’t look back.

Crossing the line on the opening lap with already a second lead, the 30 year old was able to take his ZX-10RR into new levels, and he dominated the field over 20 laps of the Portimao circuit. Making it his fourth win in a row in Portugal, Rea has now extended his championship lead, and is in awe of his pace today.

“I don’t know what to say,” Begins Rea. “These weekends don’t come so often, the circuit is really difficult to get a perfect set up."

"I worked on myself and not just the bike over the weekend, but everything has worked well.  I got a good start, put my head down from lap one and when I saw the gap on the first lap from my pit board I couldn’t believe it."

"Then it was hard to keep the concentration for the rest of the race, but it was very rewarding and if the gap stayed consistent I knew I had a bit to respond with." He adds

"I’ve never had this kind of race in my life so it’s amazing. The bike feels so nice, I am lost for words.”

On the other side of the garage, Sykes’ weekend came to an early end following a big crash at the top of the hill in turn nine during Saturday morning’s free practise session.

With the session red flagged, Sykes was taken to the medical centre and was unable to take part in the remainder of the weekend, needed surgery on his little finger following a dislocation.

Understandably downbeat, Sykes explains: “They have put the finger back in place as it was badly dislocated. I am disappointed with the crash, something so small led into a big crash but most of all it’s a shame the medication I had in the medical centre as meant I have been unable to race."

"I would have liked to have tried to ride to keep the points coming in but that’s not to be and I’m really disappointed for this and what will be will be."

Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea took his tenth win of 2017 with a fantastic ride at the Portuguese Round - which saw him dominate the race from pole and cross the line 6.189s seconds ahead of second placed Chaz Davies. Marco Melandri just held off Leon Camier for third place on the finish straight.

Rea was untouchable over the 20 lap contest around the 4.592km Autodromo Internacional do Algarve at Portimao as he shot away from the head of the grid and soon built up an unbridgeable lead at the front.

The victory was Rea’s 18^th podium in 19 races this year and the Northern Irishman now enjoys a 95 point lead at the head of the standings.

After a crash in SP2 Davies also rode brilliantly, coming from ninth on the grid to take a highly creditable second place, beating his teammate Melandri across the finish line by just under four seconds.

Melandri in turn beat Camier by just +0.342 as the Brit chased him hard in the final stages of the race.

The top five also featured Michael van der Mark, with Jordi Torres sixth and Eugene Laverty seventh.

The top ten was completed by Lorenzo Savadori, Xavi Fores and Roman Ramos.

There were crashes for Stefan Bradl and Leandro Mercado, meaning DNFs for both, although the pair escaped their incidents otherwise unscathed.

Tom Sykes missed the race and is out of action for the rest of the weekend after sustaining a finger injury in an FP3 crash earlier on Saturday.

On Sunday at the Portuguese Round the WorldSBK riders will go again in Race 2 at 3pm local time.

Championship contender Chaz Davies was happy to take second position around the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, as it was a case of ‘damage limitation’ on race one, finishing 6.189s behind Jonathan Rea.

After a tough qualifying which saw the Welsh rider suffer a small crash, it left him down in eighth position on the grid and meant he was faced with a big challenge on race day. With a stunning start off the line, Davies was able to make some strong moves – one on his team-mate – to quickly get up into second position.

However once he was up in second he was aware he would not be able to reduce the gap to Rea in the lead, and was happy to take second position in a tough race.

“To be honest it was the best that we could do with Jonny,” begins Davies.

“It’s been clear since yesterday morning, although I felt like we were closer this morning, but for race distance I think that we need to find a bit extra."

"I wasn’t that comfortable, I had a few little warnings as I was pulling away from Marco and then I was never going to catch Jonny." He commented

"I tried to change my style to see what I could learn for tomorrow’s race, definitely didn’t have enough for today but I’ll take 20 points."

In fine conditions at the Prosecco DOC Portuguese Round on Saturday Jonathan Rea took pole position with a 1’41.430 lap on his Kawasaki ZX-10RR, with Milwaukee Aprilia teammates Eugene Laverty and Lorenzo Savadori joining him on the front row.

Northern Irishman Rea was 0.767s clear of the rest of the pack, with Laverty in second place and Savadori was 0.944s off P1 in third as the Aprilia pair produced an impressive showing.

A crash in the session for Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) left him down in the unfamiliar territory of ninth place on the grid, whilst Tom Sykes was absent from Tissot Superpole 2 after a crash in FP3.

The accident has left Sykes with a finger injury on his left hand which will require surgery and rules him out of further action this weekend in Portugal.

On row two after an exciting SP2 session were Alex Lowes Marco Melandri and Jordi Torres.

Meanwhile, qualifying on the third row around the 4.592km circuit at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve were Michael van der Mark, Stefan Bradl and the aforementioned Davies.

Xavi Fores and Leon Camier were tenth and eleventh respectively. Spaniards Torres and Fores were the two riders to have made it through from the earlier SP1 session, whilst Leandro Mercado completes row four on the grid in the absence of Sykes.