Yamaha's Jonathan Rea puts first points on board at Catalunya but "very disappointed" with World Superbike season so far

The Ulsterman, who made his race debut in the series in 2008, endured his worst weekend in the championship at the opening round last month at Phillip Island in Australia, where Rea finished 17th in his debut race for the factory Pata Prometeon Yamaha team and 10th in the Superpole encounter.

He crashed out of the final race in Oz and vowed to use the break in between rounds to regroup.

However, despite an encouraging test at Catalunya and a positive start to the race weekend when Rea was fifth fastest in free practice on Friday, the 37-year-old was ruled out of Saturday’s race after burning out his clutch on the grid.

His wait for his first points with Yamaha continued after Rea crossed the line in 13th in the Superpole race before he finally put some points on the board after finishing eighth in Race 2.

The record 119-time race winner is now hoping to use the result as a springboard for the rest of the season, starting at the next round at Assen in the Netherlands (April 19-21), where Rea has won more races than any other rider.

“Overall it’s been a very disappointing weekend, but like the trend of Phillip Island, we have made some progress even though it hasn’t looked like that,” said Rea, who announced his departure from Kawasaki last year after nine seasons.

“I registered our first points of the season in Race 2; it was a problem-free race but I struggled starting in 13th place.

“Some positives, but it’s not where we want to be right now. We’ll move on to Assen and try to have an open mind over what can happen there and start from zero.

“Of course, the tide has to change and I feel like we had a lot of issues thrown our way. We’re dealing with them in a good way as a team, trying to breathe and turn the page, and now hopefully we can do a good job in Assen,” he added.

“My season started properly today with some points, Assen is just another stepping stone. We can’t put too much pressure on myself or the team and this is a story we have to build into.

“Sometimes you have the fairy tale and sometimes you don’t and we’ll develop at our pace and we can’t force that wave to come but when it comes, I’m sure we’ll ride it well.”

Turkey’s Toprak Razgatlioglu clinched a double for his maiden victories for the factory BMW team while reigning champion Alvaro Bautista bagged his first win of the season on the Aruba.it Ducati.