Rea: “It seems to be going against Bautista right now, all for him to lose”

Bautista has made mistakes in three of the last four WorldSBK rounds, two of which were from the lead of the race.

Prior to his mistake at Imola, Bautista had won all but two races in 2023 which included a run of 11 consecutive wins from Mandalika to Donington Park. 

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But while Bautista has still managed to recover from his mistakes by winning races in each of the last four rounds, Toprak Razgatlioglu had halved his championship lead.

Rea, who won all six of WorldSBK titles in back-to-back fashion, knows the pressure that can be put on a rider when momentum begins to shift.

Talking about the championship fight, of which he’s not part of heading into the final two rounds, Rea said: "When I was in Alvaro’s position, you start to think about the gap coming down and how many races are left. 

"With every race that goes by, the gap can be less and less but you see how quick an advantage can swing with a good weekend or bad one. 

"It seems the momentum was all with Alvaro at the beginning of the season, now in the last races, they’ve faced difficulties. It seems to be going against him right now with uncharacteristic mistakes and Toprak’s riding in a good way but you have to win races. 

"The points gap between winning and finishing second means a lot at this stage; it’s all for him to lose. 

"We have to look at our competition to understand our strengths and weaknesses and exploit them at different circuits. 

"This is one that might not penalise our weaknesses as much; we come on in fourth gear, carrying momentum and hopefully around the rest of the track, we can make a difference."