Jonathan Rea reveals “apprehensive” 2024 WorldSBK highlight

Jonathan Rea’s first season with Yamaha in WorldSBK clearly fell below the expectations that travel with a rider who has won six world titles, but it was not totally absent of highlights.

The first for the Northern Irish rider came at the Dutch Round at Assen in April, where he scored his first pole position of 2024 in the third round.

“Assen was incredible, especially the pole position in the Superpole,” Rea told WorldSBK.com.

“To be honest, in the winter testing, we didn’t ride so much in the wet, so I was apprehensive of riding the bike and it was a 15-minute session, so my tactic was just to go out and ride and keep riding and lapping.

“But lap-by-lap I gained more and more confidence, and in those wet conditions anything can happen, so I was trying to do enough to be fast but not too much to crash.

“When I crossed the chequered flag and I looked up at the big screen and I saw that I was still fastest, it was a really nice moment because until that time it was a really difficult transition to Yamaha.

“So, it was a nice little present to all the crew to try and keep the motivation high and the weekend worked out quite solid from a position point of view as well.”

Later in the year, Rea scored his first, and so far only, podium for Yamaha at the UK Round at Donington, something he says was thanks to a tyre choice his team weren’t entirely convinced of.

“Having a podium in Donington was another highlight,” Rea said.

“I remember being on the grid and not being super-confident to go with the soft [compound rear] tyre. I remember having discussions with the crew and saying ‘I want the long race tyre,’ [a tyre that was] a bit harder, that wouldn’t drop off at the end.

“I could feel that the crew around me were questioning that decision, but [I thought] ‘I have to prove these guys wrong, I have to go out and give everything in the first laps’.

“I got my head down and found myself with good track position, and then I thought ‘I have to use the guys in front just to take me away from the traffic’.

“Then I could start to breathe a little bit, follow my pit board, and to come round and be on the podium was really nice because we’d been coming from so far.

“It was a nice little reward for all our hard work and not giving up.”