Jonathan Rea feels 'we caught a bit of a wave' after Donington Park gains
Northern Ireland’s Jonathan Rea wrapped up a World Superbike weekend of progress in Yamaha blue with the feeling “we caught a bit of a wave”.
The six-time world champion celebrated forward steps since making the switch from Kawasaki around his Donington Park home date thanks to a first podium in Sunday’s Superpole outing, plus highest-ever full-length race placing of fifth across the Saturday main event.
“It’s super,” said Rea on the official World Superbike website. “If I looked at the weekend as a whole, we faced some challenges but also, we caught a bit of a wave.”
Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) finished with a weekend clean sweep and maximum points put him clear by 41 at the top of the overall World Superbike standings over Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).
Rea was fifth in Saturday’s opening race then registered that welcome podium appearance on the Pata Prometeon Yamaha machine before wrapping up Donington Park eighth over the final outing to sit 11th in the main standings after five rounds.
Following that Superpole race which left Rea standing on the podium, he said on the official World Superbike website: “It’s amazing...I know the podium was a little bit ahead of where we targeted, especially in such a short race. I nailed my start! My start was amazing.
"Yesterday, ‘Loka’ (team-mate Andrea Locatelli) went inside but I was blocked from going there. I thought I’d send it around the outside and see what happens.
"I came out fourth. I thought, ‘ahh, just do Sam (Lowes) into the Old Hairpin’ and suddenly it was like I’d never ridden a bike, I was all nervous in third thinking how I’d manage that! I got my head down and was pretty strong. I want to thank my team for their constant hard work. We’re still not really scratching the surface of what our full potential is but we’re not giving up.
"The confidence in that race was pretty good. Didn’t have that little bit to go with Bulega and Toprak in the end, so congrats to them. I get to start on the front row now, I can see the lights!”
Looking back over race two, Rea accepted “we couldn’t capitalise on the track position (from third in the Superpole race), starting on the front row”.
"I struggled from the get-go with rear traction,” he said. “The bike was almost the same, same tyre choice, same everything. Right from the get-go, I had no entry or exit traction.
"I was struggling compared to Race 1 and the Superpole Race, so that’s something to look into. I haven’t had a chance to look into any of the data or the tyre pressures or anything like that, but something wasn’t right. I was slip-sliding around with my team-mate and ‘Loka’ did a great job. He was at the front of the group and it’s always hard to lead at Donington, so I just gritted my teeth as long as I could, tried not to make any mistakes….disappointed to finish the weekend like that but overall, we can take some positives into Most. “We don’t have to wait too long to race again, so it’s nice to carry that good feeling with the bike and the team.”