REA RECORDS ANOTHER PODIUM FINISH

Jonathan Rea secured a front row start in Superpole qualifying at Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya and then went on to finish third in WorldSBK Race One, collecting his fourth podium of the 2023 season.

Rea had a dramatic but fruitful finish to Superpole qualifying after team-mate Alex Lowes crashed, bringing out the red flag which halted the session with just over two minutes to go. He was able to squeeze in one final lap in the remaining time and ended up with a front row staring place, in third position.

The proposed 20-lap Race One was stopped after three laps. Once again red flags halted proceedings after Oliver König crashed out on his Orelac Racing Movisio Kawasaki.

The restart was run over 17-laps and Rea was an integral part of the leading group behind the clear race winner, Alvaro Bautista. Rea looked to be on course for a second place finish until he was passed on the final lap by Toprak Razgatlioglu, and could not quite find a way past before the chequered flag.

With Race One complete, Sunday May 7 will feature the Tissot-Superpole race over ten laps and then a final full distance Race Two. 

Jonathan Rea said: “A solid day and better than my expectations. In Superpole I got lucky and unlucky, because the red flag came when I was in the final sector of a very good lap, so we had already used one of our tyres. We had to put in a used Q tyre again in the restart. According to the circuit’s timing tower I was out of time to do a final fast lap, but when I came onto the straight there was no chequered flag, so I thought - go! We improved the lap time so it was very lucky. I had good track positions and good starts in both races. In the restarted final race, once Bassani and Rinaldi had lost track position, I was in the front of the group, but Alvaro was in a different race. If I am talking about the race between Toprak and I, it was very difficult to maintain the rhythm without wasting the tyre trying to both stay in front and pull away from the group behind. So it was one of those races where I was trying to maintain my effort but not smash the tyre. I had nothing at the end to try to outbrake Toprak and even went back a gear going into the last corner, maybe thinking I could get a jump onto the finish line but he was too good in that last sector, going through those fast right hand corners.”