Jonathan Rea capped a satisfying Sunday at Aragon in Spain with a fine fifth place in the final World Superbike race of the weekend and said he was “really happy” overall.

The Pata Maxus Yamaha rider has six races left before retiring from full-time racing after the final race at Jerez in Spain, although the 38-year-old has been linked to a test rider role with BMW and even a possible ride for the manufacturer in the Endurance World Championship.

Rea began the weekend with a 13th-place finish in Saturday’s first race, when he was hampered by tyre issues.

However, he matched his qualifying position of eighth in the Superpole race and made another step forward in the second 18-lap race, finishing fifth as Italy’s Nicolo Bulega completed a double on the Aruba.it Ducati, twice beating championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW) and his Ducati team-mate Alvaro Bautista.

placeholder image — Jonathan Rea finished fifth on the Pata Maxus Yamaha in Race 2 at Aragon in Spain. (Photo by Tim Fritzsch)

Rea said: “Really satisfied with today’s work, and I want to thank my team, all my crew, because without testing here last month it was hard to come with all the information ready to go.

“We arrived with my bike from Magny-Cours and we finished with quite a different R1 after putting everything together and it was the best version of my bike that I’ve ridden here in Aragon.

“Track position was everything and I was able to get P8 in the Superpole Race, to be able to get away with the top group in the main race.

“Then I found myself P4 on the first lap and thought ‘wow!’ I made great passes and put myself in the right place.

“I tried to do a really solid rhythm, but when Alvaro came past, it was really difficult to stay with him. I was strong in some areas of the track and he was so much stronger in that last sector; I was doing everything I could to come out of Turn 15 and stay in the slipstream to try to get away from the group behind.

“When (Andrea) Iannone passed me, all I could do was continue to ride strongly and wait for any kind of mistake in front. He had a bit more pace than me in the last laps, but P5 is something we can be really happy with as a team.”

Rea said he was now looking ahead to the final two rounds at Estoril in Portugal (October 10-12) and Jerez (October 17-19) with a “good feeling”.

“It’s not where we want to be, we’re quite a few seconds off the race win, but it’s the best version of ourselves that we’ve shown in a while,” he added.

“It’s nice to go into the last two rounds with a good feeling.”

Rea’s replacement in the Yamaha team for 2026 was announced yesterday, with Spain’s Xavi Vierge joining Andrea Locatelli in the line-up. Vierge will switch to the R1 after riding for the factory Honda team.

Bulega’s two wins at Aragon means he has reduced Razgatlioglu’s title lead to 36 points with six races left.

Razgatlioglu won Saturday’s race after a thrilling battle with Bulega to claim his 13th victory in a row, but his incredible winning streak was finally ended by his rival yesterday.

Bulega won the Superpole race by only a tenth of a second but had a more comfortable advantage of over three seconds as he beat Razgatlioglu again in the final race.