Jonathan Rea: “The tide has to change; we’ve had a lot of issues thrown our way”
“Now, if something’s not right or not there or the stars aren’t aligning, you’re on the struggle bus," says Jonathan Rea
Jonathan Rea’s frustrating weekend in Barcelona concluded with P8 in Race 2 at the WorldSBK second round.
The Yamaha rider “fried the clutch” on the starting line of Race 1 and retired without completing a single lap, but fared better on Sunday.
Rea was P13 in the Superpole race after a Lap 1 incident where he was squeezed off-track.
Impressively, in Race 2 on Sunday afternoon, Rea made up four positions within the first lap after starting from the fifth row.
He settled for eighth, and reacted: “Overall, it’s been a very disappointing weekend.
“Like the trend of Phillip Island, we have made progress even if it might not look like that.
“We’ve taken our first points of the season in Race 2. Race 2 was a problem-free race without issues.
“I struggled starting from P13 because you don’t have track position and you have to be a bit more aggressive in the beginning.
“Then, after that, I’d already wasted some tyre and then tried to conserve as much as possible.
“Guys like Remy Gardner, Danilo Petrucci and Michael van der Mark and Alex, I thought they’d come back to me at the end.
“They dropped their pace a little bit but not enough. I was catching but I ran out of laps.
“There are some positives in there; it’s not where we want to be right now but we’ll move onto Assen and try and have an open mind with what could happen there.
“The tide has to change; we’ve had a lot of issues thrown our way and we’re dealing with them in a really good way as a team by trying to breathe and turn the page.”
Rea’s Pata Prometeon Yamaha teammate Andrea Locatelli crashed out of Race 2 on the first lap.
Sunday in Barcelona belonged to Toprak Razgatlioglu (Superpole winner) and Alvaro Bautista (Race 2 winner).
Ex-Kawasaki legend Rea has not been, so far, among the frontrunners in 2024.
“You don’t have to be too far off the pace now to be fighting outside the top ten and I don’t have that ultimate pace on the bike yet,” he said.
“I’m still finding my feet and trying to understand the bike.
“I’m really pushing the team to give me what I need to be fast. It’s taking time but I’m sure it will arrive.
“I really believe in the people around me so there’s a lot of credit to them; they deserve this as much as I do. We’ll keep with it, not give up and Assen is a happy hunting ground for me so there’s no better place to go next to try and score some big points.
“You have to take these small wins; we’re not fighting for the podium, that’s always the target.
“The class is stacked; last year, you could be a little bit off and fight easily in the top ten.
“Now, if something’s not right or not there or the stars aren’t aligning, you’re on the struggle bus.
“We need to maximise our weekends and try and stay out of trouble. Superpole is super important; I messed up my lap so I have to shoulder some of that but we probably didn’t prepare in the right way either with Free Practice 3 being tough.
“When you start from the fifth row, your race is almost written on the wall.
“Assen’s focus will be getting a bike that I can race with well but also starting further up the grid. We can’t force the wave to come but when it does, I’m sure we’ll ride it well.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
