The tide has got to change, says struggling Rea
JONATHAN Rea finally got off the mark to register his first World Superbike points since his high-profile move to the factory Yamaha team yesterday in Barcelona but the struggling Northern Ireland rider admitted “the tide has to change”.
Rea’s eighth place in the final race of the weekend at round two of the Championship was the first time in six races the 37-yearold managed to put points on the board.
It has been a nightmare start to his Yamaha career after he announced in September his decision to leave Kawasaki after nine years to replace Toprak Razgatlioglu in the Pata Prometeon team.
On Friday, Rea was fifth fastest in free practice going into the race weekend but he dropped to 13th in Superpole qualifying, which left him on the fifth row.
The six-time champion then blew his chance in the first race after cooking his clutch on the grid, forcing him to retire at the end of the opening lap on Saturday.
Yesterday, Rea finished 13th in the Superpole sprint race before battling to eighth in race two to score eight points, which leaves the Ballyclare man 17th in the standings after the first two rounds.
Razgatlioglu clinched a double for his first wins since he made the switch to the ROKIT BMW Motorrad team while reigning champion Alvaro Bautista secured his first success of the season after fending off Ducati team-mate Nicolo Bulega.
Rea is now turning his focus to Assen in the Netherlands next month (April 19-21), where he has won a record 17 times.
“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,” Rea said.
“I registered our first points of the season in race two. It was a problem-free race but I struggled starting in 13th place. When you don’t have track position you have to be a little bit more aggressive in the beginning and when I had caught up to the group, I had already wasted some tyre.
“You start to conserve as much as possible and guys like Remy (Gardner), (Danilo) Petrucci, (Michael) van der Mark — Alex (Lowes) would maybe come back at the end — but of course they dropped their pace a little bit, but not enough. I was catching but I ran out of laps.
“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.
“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.”
Rea could hardly have envisaged a worse start to the latest chapter in his unprecedented World Superbike career, but the 119-time race winner remains confident that he will soon turn his fortunes around.
“I’m very disappointed with where we are as the overall picture but it’s something to work from — it’s the first points we’ve had, so we can’t just expect to jump in and be there,” he said.
“I don’t have that ultimate pace on the bike yet, so still finding my feet, trying to understand the bike, really pushing the team to give me what I need. It’s taking time but I’m sure it will arrive.
“I really believe in the people around me and they’re working so hard, so credit to them — they deserve this as much as I do.”
Razgatlioglu won an epic Superpole race with a last-corner pass on Bautista, which allowed Italy’s Andrea Iannone to claim the runner-up spot.
Bautista hit back to clinch 25 points with a deserved victory in race two by two seconds from Bulega, with Razgatlioglu five seconds behind in third.
World Supersport champion Bulega leads the Championship by 12 points from Bautista and Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes who are joint second, while Razgatlioglu is only four points further back.
Meanwhile, Spain’s Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati) won the Motogp race at Portimao in Portugal yesterday from Enea Bastianini on the factory Ducati, while teenager Pedro Acosta completed the top three (GAS GAS Red Bull Tech3 KTM).
World champion Francesco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati) and Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati) crashed out after colliding.
Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales was also a faller.