World Superbikes: Jonathan Rea completes double at Misano

Jonathan Rea's win extended his world championship lead to 66 points

Defending champion Jonathan Rea completed a double success at Misano to extend his lead at the top of the World Superbike Championship to 66 points.

Rea, 29, saw off the challenge of his Kawasaki team-mate Tom Sykes, pulling away in the latter stages for the 10th double win of his career in the series.

The Northern Irishman finished 2.96 seconds ahead of Sykes, who also had to settle for second in Saturday's opener.

Davide Giugliano was third on Sunday, but Chaz Davies crashed out on lap two.

"I'm so happy to have made it a double win here. I learned some things from the race that I didn't see on Saturday and I was able to apply that at the end of the race," said Rea.

Rea began the eighth round of the championship by taking victory in a thrilling race one by just 0.09 seconds on Saturday.

Dutchman Michael van der Mark finished third, before being taken out by Welshman Davies in race two.

Rea gets back to winning ways

After winning five of this season's opening eight races, Rea had been without a victory in six starts, before returning to winning ways at the Italian circuit.

His successes made it 16 podiums from as many starts for the Northern Irishman this season.

The Isle of Man-based rider secured his maiden win in the global series at Misano in 2009 and has gone on to add a further 35 triumphs since then.

Huddersfield's Sykes has won four times this season and took victory in both races at the previous round at Donington Park.

The next round of the series will be staged at Laguna Seca in the United States on 9 and 10 July.

That will be followed by an eight-week break, before the final run of rounds which takes in Germany, France and Spain, before concluding in Qatar on 29 and 30 October.