Resident Ulsterman Jonathan Rea had to settle for a brace of podiums at the latest round of the World Superbike Championship in Imola, Italy.

The double WSBK champion was looking to continue his fine form having gone double Dutch as the Assen GP two weeks earlier.

But the Castletown resident was pipped to the line on both days by Ducati’s Chaz Davies who moved to within a point of Rea’s Kawasaki team-mate Tom Sykes overall following his double win in northern Italy.

The planned 19-lap opening race at Imola was counted back to lap 12 for its final result after a red flag incident halted the contest when Rea’s fellow Ulsterman Eugene Laverty crashed and his bike caught fire.

Qualifying third fastest, Rea overtook Marco Melandri on lap five but was unable to match the pace of Davies and eventually had to settle for second.

Because of the new rules that govern the second race grid places in 2017, Rea began in eighth place in Sunday’s contest on a day laden with delays and false starts in the two main championship classes at the 4.936km-circuit.

Despite the disadvantage of starting from the third row, Rea worked his way through the field and was again able to clinch second spot 3.739s behind double race winner Davies.

As such, the Castletown man extended his lead in the overall championship to 74 points ahead of team-mate Sykes who in turn is a single point clear of Davies.

The next event on the WSBK calendar is the British round at Donington Park on May 27-28.