Misano crash 'tough note' to end on, says frustrated Yamaha World Superbike rider Jonathan Rea
Jonathan Rea said his crash in the final race of the weekend on Sunday at Misano in Italy was a “tough note” to end on at round six of the World Superbike Championship.
The Pata Maxus Yamaha rider finished 12th in the opening race at the Marco Simoncelli Circuit on Saturday but was feeling upbeat after finishing seventh in the Superpole yesterday morning.
Rea was confident of further progress in Race Two but the six-time champion’s race ended in disappointment following a crash at the first corner on lap 10.
It was a frustrating finish to the weekend for Rea, who will now be looking to make amends at the British round of the series at Donington Park from July 11-13.
“The Superpole Race firstly enabled me to start on the third row for the long race,” said the Ulster rider.
“I got some good track position at the start, obviously when there was the carnage with (Nicolo) Bulega and (Axel) Bassani, everything just opened up for me and I found myself sixth or seventh and my race sort of stayed there.
“Sam Lowes was coming strong at the end and I couldn’t just quite fight with him. My bike was feeling quite good in the cooler conditions, we used the SCQ tyre and it lasted all the race.
“The feeling going into the long race was a positive one, my starts on the Yamaha R1 have been incredible recently, so I put myself facing down the left-hand side of the track thinking I could run around that group in front,” he added.
“But, I got squeezed wide in T1 and bottle-necked in T2, so any track positions I gained from the start I lost and from that point I was in a group – then lost touch as (Iker) Lecuona was just riding away from me a little bit, but I was clear from the guys behind.
“I lost the front in Turn 1 at the apex, it was a strange crash and frustrating because the trajectory of the weekend had been really positive, from missing FP1 to finishing seventh in the Superpole Race, and it’s unfortunate to end on a tough note.”
Reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu cut Nicolo Bulega’s title lead to just nine points after a treble.
The ROKiT BMW Motorrad rider followed up his victory on Saturday with a dominant ride in the Superpole race, which he won by 4.2 seconds from England’s Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) after Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati) was wiped out on the first lap by Axel Bassani.
In Race Two, Razgatlioglu streaked away on the BMW to wrap up a hat-trick, winning by 9.6 seconds from Bulega, whose team-mate Alvaro Bautista was four seconds further back in third.
Rea’s team-mate Andrea Locatelli – third in the Superpole race – finished fourth after a strong weekend for the Pata Maxus Yamaha.