REA RECOVERS TO EIGHTH IN BARCELONA RACE 2

Jonathan Rea finished the Catalunya Round of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship with positives to take forward after a demanding weekend in Spain. 

For Rea, an “unlucky” P13 finish in the Superpole Race saw the Northern Irishman start from the same position once again for Race 2, but fortunes started to reverse with strong progression in the opening lap to P8. He found confidence on his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK to battle spectacularly with Alex Lowes, Sam Lowes and Danilo Petrucci through the middle part of the main race. As the laps ticked down, Rea’s target was to push forward into the top five but he ended his second event with the team less than two seconds away after an encouraging ride. 

Now the Pata Prometeon Yamaha squad have three weeks to reset before WorldSBK returns to the TT Assen Circuit next month for the Dutch Round from 19-21 April. 

Jonathan Rea – SPRC: P13 / Race 1: P8

“Overall, it’s been a very disappointing weekend, but we have made some progress – even if it hasn’t looked obvious from the outside – and we registered our first points of the season. Race 2 was a problem-free race, no issues, I just struggled starting P13 – you don’t have track position and you have to be a bit more aggressive in the beginning. When I caught up to the group, I had already wasted some tyre so I tried to conserve as much as possible to push for the top five when the grip dropped. I was catching but ran out of laps and the pace of the riders in front didn’t drop as much as I expected. There are some positives to take, it’s not where we want to be right now, but we move on to Assen and keep an open mind. The tide has to change, I feel like we’ve had a lot of issues thrown our way and we’re dealing with them well as a team, now we need to turn the page and do a good job in Assen – I’m looking forward to making a big step there.”