Two Sunday Podiums For Rea
After winning WorldSBK Race One on Saturday at Autodrom Most Jonathan Rea put in two more podium rides on Sunday to round off the weekend by scoring more points than any other single rider.
In the first competitive action on Sunday 30 July at the 4.212km long Most circuit the ten-lap Tissot-Superpole race got underway in dry conditions, with Rea launching from the front row. Jonathan set a new all-time record of 400 WorldSBK race starts when he took part in the Superpole race, and lifted his total to 401 after competing in a full-distance Race Two.
Rea raced inside the top three throughout, going past early leader Axel Bassani after eventual race winner Toprak Razgatlioglu had taken the lead for the first time. Rea caught and passed Razgatlioglu into Turn 20 but was himself re-passed quickly afterwards and ended up just over a second behind the winner, but finishing ahead of championship leader Alvaro Bautista.
Race Two proved to be a battle throughout for Rea, who was eventually third behind race winner Bautista and - in the final corner - Danilo Petrucci. Rea had to give ground to the determined Petrucci or risk a fall, which would have undone all the good work he and his team had done from a less than ideal start to race weekend.
Rea scooped up a trio of podium places at Most, thanks to win, a second and then finally a third place in race Two. He is now third in the championship, 24 points ahead of the next best rider Andrea Locatelli.
On Saturday Rea equalled the record number of FIM World Championship race wins across the various categories with 122 - a total he now shares with the legendary Giacomo Agostini.
A long summer break now begins for the whole WorldSBK paddock, with race action starting again at Magny Cours in France between 8-10 September. KRT will have a test at Motorland Aragon before then, on 29 and 30 August.
Jonathan Rea, stated: “In the second race today I thought I was through on Danilo Petrucci but I could feel him touching me, and any more aggression on my part would cause contact. If he is on the outside he has more risk, but if I had made contact I would have had as much chance to crash as he did. I was super-happy with my weekend so I didn’t need to do something stupid in the last corner. I think if we tally up the points for all three races we come up with the most overall. It was an incredible weekend for me and the team. We did so well in the pitbox not to get emotional or down because at one time we were miles away. Where we came from on Friday? I was nowhere. I didn’t feel good with the bike but we tried to make some improvements. The races worked out pretty well, first with the Intermediate tyre in Race One then in the Superpole Race earlier today I felt good battling with Toprak. That gave me some confidence that in the long race I could be OK. In Race Two I had not enough to go with Toprak and Alvaro. At the end of the race I was losing a lot of traction and the bike became quite physical to ride. It was all I could do to try to fend off Petrucci.”