Rea 13th after penalty as Bulega wins WSB thriller

Northern Ireland's Jonathan Rea was handed a double long lap penalty for irresponsible riding before finishing 13th in the concluding World Superbike race of the weekend in the Czech Republic on Sunday.

Championship leader Nicolo Bulega extended his lead in the standings after snatching victory from his closest championship rival Toprak Razgatlioglu with the chequered flag in sight.

Razgatlioglu, who had already won both Race One and the Superpole sprint race ahead of Bulega at the Most circuit, held the lead from the 14th lap but was pipped by 0.027 seconds by the Italian Ducati rider.

The leading pair would finish more than 16 seconds ahead of Danilo Petrucci, who rounded out the podium for the third time in the round.

Britain's Sam Lowes was fourth and remains sixth in the championship standings.

Rea was involved in an incident at the first corner which brought about a yellow flag.

The six-time champion, who made his return from injury at the Italian round two weeks ago, was ultimately penalised for the collision which saw Alvaro Bautista and Xavi Vierge unable to finish the race.

After finishing 10th in the round's previous two races, Rea earned three points to take both his weekend and seasonal totals to nine.

Bulega leads the standings on 252 points with two-time champion Razgatlioglu a further 31 behind.

The sixth round of the championship will take place at Misano between 13 and 15 June.