Rea is stuck in second

RUNNER-UP: Rea JONATHAN REA admits he’s now playing catch up to World Superbike rookie Alvaro Bautista after the Spaniard took three more wins in Thailand at the weekend.

Bautista has won the first six races of the season on the Aruba Ducati Panigale V4, while four-time champion Rea has only been able to claim runner-up honours each time.

The Northern Irishman said: “The reality is we’re playing catch up, which is a situation I’ve not been in the last four years. Second is my new position it seems.

“I’ve come from behind before but the performance gap is a bit too much. As a team we’ve now got to try and do what we can.”

When Bautista won the first three races in Australia last month, it was assumed to be a fluke, with expectations that the other tracks would not suit his or the Ducati’s style.

Faster

But as Bautista won by more than 12 seconds yesterday, after taking the weekend’s previous two wins by similar margins, Rea concedes there could be a new champion this year.

He added: “Mentally it is a little bit of a different situation for me.

“I won the last 11 races of last season, so I’m slowly getting used to there being a faster guy on track right now.

“The other teams have stepped up and it’s tough for us.

“We will keep working hard to get back onto that top step and it’ll taste a lot sweeter after a brace of second places.”

Bautista, who now has a 26-point lead in the championship, was thrilled to beat Rea at a track where Kawasaki has won seven of the last eight races.

He said: “We knew that this weekend would not be like in Australia – we were coming to Kawasaki territory – but right from the beginning I had great confidence.

“But three wins and three fastest laps means that it has been a perfect weekend for me.”

Lincolnshire’s Alex Lowes took three third places over the weekend aboard the PATA Yamaha to move up to third in the standings.