Rea puts one hand on a 6th title
World champ homes in on title number six after out-performing closest rival Scott Redding
Jonathan Rea leapt towards a sixth consecutive World Superbike title in Barcelona at the weekend. Increasing his championship lead by 15 points to give him a cushion of 51 over Scott Redding means the Northern Irishman could claim the 2020 crown by as early as the next round at Magny-Cours. Although Kawasaki’s weekend was far from perfect, with three different manufacturers winning for the first time since the threerace format was introduced last year, Rea again showed how his strategic thinking and general understanding of the race weekend format can earn him titles over the course of a season.
From pole position, a clean start to Saturday’s Race 1 meant he avoided dramas and headed the field despite having to push hard to keep Redding at bay. The Sprint Race brought second place behind Michael van der Mark but, as history has shown, Rea does not take unnecessary risks when the man ahead is not a title rival. He was, however, mighty fortunate to avoid fallen bikes when Max Scheib and Alvaro Bautista crashed in front of him in Friday practice and the Sprint Race, respectively. The final race was the trickiest. Front-end wobbles (see Expert Opinion) came as a warning to the Kawasaki rider; once again, his decision to back off the pace was a calculated one with the knowledge that Redding was behind him. And the result was outscoring Redding over the three races to see his championship lead extend to more than 50 points. Job done.
“It wasn’t the final race I wanted,” he said. “It was quite aggressive early on. Once it settled down, I felt okay until about Lap 10, then struggled with the front in the last sector especially. It was moving around a lot. I knew pushing to catch the leaders would mean going over my limit. I was happy the gap behind was increasing, so I forgot about the leaders and consolidated my position. There was actually more grip in the last race but we weren’t able to utilise that.”
Rea relishes Magny-Cours, the location of the penultimate round of the championship in two weekends’ time. Now a 97-time race winner, he could theoretically claim a 100th victory and sixth world title on the same weekend. Although he’s wrapped up his last three titles there, he is sticking to his mantra and refusing to discuss title aspirations: “I’m not thinking about the championship right now. The target is to go race by race and to keep winning.
“But, of course, going from crashing out of Race 1 at Phillip Island at the start of the year to being in this position now is great! You can see how easy it is to lose points, so we just go race by race.”
‘My target is to go raceby-race and to keep winning’