World Superbikes: Jonathan Rea finishes 10th in first race of this weekend's action in the Czech Republic
Jonathan Rea had to contend with a 10th place finish in the Czech Republic as Toprak Razgatlioglu made it eight World Superbike race wins in a row.
Yesterday’s free practice sessions left Rea with placings of sixth and third around the Most track for Pata Prometeon Yamaha and he stated how he was happy to reflect on his best day in Yamaha blue to the weekend tests.
Rea finished the closing outing just 0.514s off clear overall leader Toprak Razgatlioglu.
However, he failed to challenge the leaders on Saturday’s race day and is now 11th place in the championship standings.
“Very difficult Race 1, compounded from a bad qualifying – I made a mistake on my first timed lap. I had a good wheel in front and was just fractionally wide on the bumps in Turn 16, had some chatter and just folded the front,” Rea told the team website.
"Huge kudos to the guys because they turned the bike around in seven minutes and I was back out there to finish the session.
"I got one lap which was clean enough for P15, better than where we were and I appreciated getting out there, but it still really damaged our changes of a good result after a strong Friday.
"I made a good start from row five though unfortunately, I got sandwiched at Turn 1 with two riders and after T2 I was almost dead last. So step-by-step, just making good passes – my rhythm in the middle of the race was quite ok, but I struggled with some chatter at the end of the race.
"We have some good data and now’s the time for the crew to improve the bike, we have a lot of information so hopefully we can make a step for tomorrow.
"The key will be to do a good Superpole Race to put us in a better grid position for Race 2. P10 for all our work, it was a hard race and tough work coming through, but we have more experience now and we’ll go again tomorrow!”
After starting from pole position, Turkish star Razgatlioglu took the holeshot on the run down to Turn 1, comfortable extending a lead early on before storming to claim his 10th victory with BMW – his eighth win in a row.
The gap to the field behind was 5.740s to Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) in second and Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven) in third.
Tomorrow will feature the Superpole race (10am) and race two (1pm).