World Superbikes: Jonathan Rea takes championship lead as Toprak Razgatlioglu retires

Jonathan Rea reclaimed the lead of the World Superbike Championship after title rival Toprak Razgatlioglu failed to finish the first feature race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Six-time champion Rea led in wet conditions but was passed by Yahama's Razgatlioglu as the track dried.

However Razgatlioglu retired with a mechanical issue and Rea holds a six-point lead despite dropping to fourth.

Scott Redding won the race for Ducati to boost his slim championship hopes.

Redding, who was 10th after the opening lap, is now 53 points behind championship leader Rea.

Rea dropped from third to fifth as his Kawasaki bogged down on the start, but some smart race craft saw him move up to second by the end of the opening lap.

The Northern Irishman moved up the inside of Razgatlioglu on lap two, however his Turkish rival hit back at the first turn on the following lap but immediately ran wide to allow Rea back up the inside of the long, sweeping right-hand turn three.

Ducati rider Axel Bassani stormed from 11th on the grid to challenge the leading duo, and the Italian rider's thrilling side-by-side battle with Razgatlioglu allowed Rea to pull away and build a three-second lead.

Razgatlioglu eventually made a move stick on Bassani with 12 laps to go and the pair soon reeled in Rea, who was struggling for pace as conditions began to dry.

The championship contenders swapped positions at turn four with nine laps to go when Razgatlioglu moved up the inside of Rea, who then dropped to third when Bassani passed the Northern Irishman into the first corner.

However, just when Razgatlioglu looked like he would ease to victory, his Yamaha slowed coming out of the second corner with six laps to go before pulling off the circuit to hand Bassani the lead.

Having barely featured in the front-running battle, Ducati duo Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Redding soon found themselves in a position to challenge for an unlikely win.

Rea was soon passed by both Ducati men and Redding got the jump on Bassani with two laps to go to take a lead he would not relinquish.

Bassani claimed a maiden World Superbike podium ahead of Rinaldi, while Rea held off the charging BMW of Michael van der Mark to take fourth and the championship lead.

Rea's Kawasaki team-mate Alex Lowes was sixth ahead of Honda's Leon Haslam, BMW's Tom Sykes and Honda's Alvaro Bautista. Welsh rider Chaz Davies was 10th on his Ducati.

Razgatlioglu will have the chance to hit back in the Superpole race on Sunday morning before the second feature race in Spain at 14:15 BST.