Rea puts a line through ‘really difficult’ Jerez, targets Misano wins

Jonathan Rea will turn his attentions to clawing back more ground on Alvaro Bautista in the World Superbike Championship in Misano after a testing weekend in Jerez.

The Kawasaki Racing rider was embroiled in a controversial final corner collision with Alex Lowes in race one, for which he was demoted off the podium and forced to start the Superpole Race from the back of the grid.

However, despite being comfortably out-paced by main rival Bautista – who notched up victories in the opening two races in Jerez – in terms of pure pace, a fall and failure to score for the Spaniard in the final encounter meant Rea actually left Spain having trimmed the overall lead to 41 points.

Nevertheless, Rea is aware he needs to make greater in-roads into his rival by beating him in a straight fight but feels Misano represents an ideal opportunity around a circuit well-suited to the Kawasaki ZX-10RR and scene of his maiden WorldSBK win 10 years earlier when racing for Honda.

“Misano is a race weekend that I always look forward to. It is the scene of my first ever SBK win in 2009 and the whole atmosphere of being in Italy, and right by the beach, means it has a great feeling to it. And people always come out and watch as well.

“After a really difficult Jerez it is the perfect place to go to and try and get back the feeling we had in Imola and some previous races.

“We had a really strong test at Misano just a few weeks ago, where I was both fast and consistent, so we have a really good idea where to start FP1 from, and then build forward from there. I will work with all my crew to maximise our potential.”