World Superbikes: Jonathan Rea completes Portimao hat-trick to go top of championship

Rea has now won all three sprint races of the 2020 series

Defending champion Jonathan Rea has moved to the top of the World Superbike leaderboard with his third win of the weekend at Portimao.

The five-time series winner's victory in the second feature race saw him go four points ahead of Scott Redding after the third round of the series.

It completed a hat-trick for the Northern Irishman, who also finished first in Sunday's sprint race and in race one on Saturday.

Redding finished second in race two.

• Rea wins race one in Portugal

He was 4.36 seconds behind the 33-year-old and ahead of Michael van der Mark of the Netherlands in third, with England's Chaz Davies finishing fourth and Spain's Alvaro Bautista in fifth.

Turkish rider Toprak Razgatlioglu, who had finished second in the sprint race, suffered his first crash of the season on lap six before going on to finish eighth.

Former British Superbike champion Redding had won twice in Jerez last week

Northern Ireland's Eugene Laverty finished 14th in what was the ninth race of the 2020 championship season, which resumed in Jerez last weekend after the five-month shutdown of the sport.

"I can't believe it, to come here 24 points back and leave as the leader is incredible," Rea told Eurosport.

"My team gave me a great bike. I knew to keep the pace strong in the beginning with Scott and sooner or later the cord would break."

English rider Redding went into Sunday afternoon one point ahead of title holder Rea, who has now enjoyed 12 race wins at the Portuguese track.

It was a 93rd career World Superbike win for Rea, who took the lead in the standings for the first time this season, and a 152nd in the championship for Kawasaki.

Earlier on Sunday, Rea had enjoyed a comfortable 2.9-second victory in the sprint race, ahead of Razgatlioglu in second and France's Loris Baz in third.