“It’s not a question of if, it’s when” - Jonathan Rea on Toprak Razgatlioglu WorldSBK title chance

Despite improvements in his injured right thumb, Jonathan Rea says it’s “hard to have expectations” for this weekend’s Estoril World Superbike round.

Rea missed most of the French Round at Magny-Cours through the thumb injury he picked up in Race 1, and then sat out the Italian Round at Cremona as he continued to recover, but was able to make his return at the Aragon Round two weeks ago.

Ahead of Estoril this weekend, “My injury is fine,” Rea told WorldSBK.com. “The skin’s almost healed over so I should have no pain on the bike.

“It’s hard to have expectations because, going into Aragon, a track I’ve been so strong at, I had a disappointing weekend. I struggled to be competitive.

“Tomorrow, we’ll try to build up step by step with the team, try to address the areas we’re weak and build a bike to be strong on Sunday because the field in WorldSBK is super-stacked, so if you’re just that little bit off, you can be a long way away.”

Rea added that qualifying has been an area in which he has focused on improving.

“I’ve tried to focus a lot on Superpole,” he said, “different tactics to attack it, trying to find the right rider to follow.”

Rea said that, in actuality, he had let it become too complicated. “It generally doesn’t fall my way, so back to basics, try to do my own thing and forget about other riders.”

Finally, Rea had a word on Toprak Razgatlioglu, who has a mathematical chance to win his second WorldSBK title this weekend.

“Toprak’s [Razgatlioglu] been so super-strong and had an incredible season,” Rea said.

“Unfortunately, he missed a few races due to injury — Magny-Cours and Cremona — so to still be in the lead of the Championship shows the season he’s had.

“It’s not a question of if, it’s when. Chapeau to him, he’s done a great job and, albeit from afar, it’s been nice to watch.”