Sour end to Misano WorldSBK for Jonathan Rea after “good” feeling in Superpole Race

The Misano WorldSBK proved to be a fluctuating weekend for Jonathan Rea, whose Sunday was split between an encouraging seventh in the Superpole Race before crashing out of Race 2.

Rea’s weekend started with a technical issue in FP1, then he qualified only 16th in Superpole before racing to an underwhelming 12th in Race 1.

The six-time World Superbike Champion was able to take advantage of the crash between Nicolo Bulega and Axel Bassani (the latter was penalised and apologised for the incident afterwards), eventually able to finish seventh.

“I got some good track position into turn one when there was the carnage with Bulega and Bassani; everything just opened up for me and I found myself sixth or seventh,” Jonathan Rea explained to WorldSBK.com after Race 2.

“My race sort of stayed there. Sam Lowes was coming strong at the end and I couldn’t quite fight with him.

“The bike was feeling good in the cooler conditions, we used the SCQ [rear] tyre and it lasted all the race and I felt good.”

Rea said that the positive Superpole Race left him optimistic for Race 2, but he lost out at the start, then lacked pace to go with the riders ahead of him before what he called a “strange” crash.

“The feeling going into the long race was a positive one,” he said.

“My starts on the Yamaha R1 have been incredible recently, so I sort of put myself facing down the left-hand side of the track thinking I could really run around that group in front.

“But I got squeezed wide in turn one and it bottlenecked in turn two, so any track position I gained at the start I lost in turn one.

“From that point I was just in a group; I lost touch with the group that formed, Lecuona was just riding away from me a little bit, but I was clearing the guys behind so it was lonely.

“Going into turn one, like usual the rear was bouncing around, but when it picked up and landed I literally lost the front straight away, nowhere near the apex – a strange one.

“Frustrating because the trajectory of the weekend had been a really positive one – from missing FP1 to finishing seventh in the Superpole Race.

“It was unfortunate to end on a tough note.”