THE REDDING AND REA SHOW,
12 races in and just 10 points separate champ Rea and rookie Redding
As WSB reaches its halfway point following the latest round at Aragon it’s still anybody’s guess as to who will be champion with the 2020 season proving to be the closest since Max Biaggi pipped Tom Sykes by half a point in 2012. But the results at MotorLand Aragon also cemented the fact that the season is all about two men: Jonathan Rea and Scott Redding.
The weather was windy, the tension high and the racing close. With the respective Aragon and Teruel Rounds just days apart, the track becomes the first circuit to host WSB on consecutive weekends; only Brands Hatch and Donington Park have welcomed the series twice in one season and that was back in 1994.
The fact all top teams bar BMW tested at Aragon straight after the Portimao races made practice easier, with base setups already in place for most. That said, new tyres and cooler conditions ensured the field didn’t have it easy. Ahead of the 80th race in Spain, Rea smashed the qualifying record to achieve his first Aragon pole. As the mightily powerful Ducati is impossible to fight on the straights, Rea pushed his Kawasaki to the limit and beyond in the corners. The scariest moments were his Race 1 error as he challenged Redding, eventually losing second to Chaz Davies, and his gear selection faux pas in Race 2 which resulted in the same fate but this time for the lead. In typical Rea fashion, he grabbed it back to collect another 25 points, having already won the earlier Superpole sprint race.
“It surprised me how comfortable I was,” Rea said of his 95th win, one of his very best. “For Race 2 we used the softer front tyre following the problems of Saturday. I had to have a good start to control the race. With four laps to go I made a bonehead error at the last corner, using fourth gear instead of third, so I had no engine braking and almost crashed! I didn’t give up. I had to get straight back past Chaz. My team have pushed to improve me but keep the bike setup similar. Massive kudos to them.” Redding is still struggling under braking and in Race 2 it caused big problems and he was unable to explain exactly why fourth was the most he could muster.
He said: “I couldn’t get grip to go forwards. I pushed harder and used more tyre. Is it the tyre or the bike? Chaz was fine, so maybe it’s the way I rode it. I can’t have a win, a second and then a fourth; that’s not acceptable from my side. We need to sort it.”