Rea feels the pressure at Donny
Champ loses series lead to Toprak as WSB title race ramps up
‘Rea is having to push harder than ever’
Following the weekend during which Jonathan Rea emerged as a possible candidate for a MotoGP ride (see p71), he and Kawasaki find themselves in a new situation. They threw away 25 points in Sunday’s race two at Donington and with it the series lead to Toprak Razgatlioglu. Although a crowd of 4000 was allowed into the venue, most convened on the outside of the Craner Curves or Melbourne Loop and missed Rea’s crash at Coppice. It’s not the first time Rea has felt the pressure but this is different; in 2019 the challenge was more one of accepting that he had ‘lost’ the championship to a dominant Alvaro Bautista and Ducati. This year, it’s a constant threat from Yamaha and one which has forced errors. Across the last six races, Toprak has out-scored Rea five times. During these races we have seen numerous dramatic moments, near crashes and heart-stopping saves; the Kawasaki man is having to push harder than ever before. Race two saw, for the first time in a long race, the entire field use the SCX rear as well as Pirelli’s latest front, which is softer but with a harder construction. As for the super-soft SCX, Kawasaki had avoided it in longer races as its superior grip was causing too much front-end pushing; these problems had been mirrored with teammate Alex Lowes as well as with Lee Jackson and Rory Skinner in BSB. However, with the rest of the WSB field having got their heads around it and with some BSB riders having used only the SCX during testing, KRT have been forced to find a way to make it work. Until the crash, Rea had finished on the podium in the previous 11 races but Toprak had also maintained an alldry race rostrum record – and even Aragon had seen a marked improvement from Yamaha after they struggled there in 2020. Alex Lowes enjoyed a solid weekend, sealing a podium in his 200th race on Saturday. That means he’s finished inside the top three at his home circuit for three different manufacturers: Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki. After a last-minute switch from wet to intermediate tyres proved correct, Lowes crashed out of the Sprint Race from second place. Slightly unsighted behind Rea on the approach to the Old Hairpin, so concerned was he about running wide onto a damp patch that he cut too far inside, touched the white line and lost control.