REA WINS AT KRT'S HOME ROUND

Jonathan Rea took his tenth race win of the 2021 season in the Tissot-Superpole race and then finished sixth in the subsequent Race Two.

Almost ideal racing conditions compared to a wet Race One on Saturday welcomed the final day of action at Barcelona - Catalunya and the races would be laden with drama of both welcome and unwelcome kinds.

In the morning Tissot-Superpole Race Jonathan Rea would win what was finally a very short five lap battle, after a red flag incident in the first attempted running of the planned ten-lap contest nullified that event entirely.

Rea fought hard from start to finish in the doubly intense competition once it began and beat his biggest championship rival Toprak Razgatlioglu by 0.211 seconds at KRT’s almost literal home circuit.

In Race Two another early red flag incident caused yet another delayed and restarted WorldSBK race, this time over 19 laps and not the scheduled 20.

For Jonathan it became a tough afternoon as he found issues in stopping going into corners and could not defend his track position after a strong start. He called on all his experience to finish sixth.

In the fight for the championship Rea is just one point behind leader Razgatlioglu with nine rounds completed. Alex is sixth in the championship, just nine points from the rider in fifth place. 

The next round takes place next weekend, at the Circuito de Jerez - Angel Nieto, between 24-26 September.

Jonathan Rea said: “In the Superpole Race I had a really good bike set-up; my guys changed the bike throughout the weekend. It was a lot of fun, fighting with Toprak and the rhythm was very fast in a five lap race. It was more about who wanted it than who was most clever with set-up. Overall it was a difficult weekend because we didn’t maximise our potential, both in Race One and Race Two. In the final race today, right from the start, I really struggled in the braking area to stop the bike. On Friday we made a long race simulation with the bike and it felt OK but I still had a drop of pace about lap 14. But today my pace in the middle of the race was terrible. I was just getting pushed into all the corners. I couldn’t be fluid with the bike. It was a real surprise and disappointing because I think we could have been much more competitive.”