Rea strides towards sixth WorldSBK title with Aragon wins
Jonathan Rea has taken control of the 2020 WorldSBK Championship after reeling off a trio of victories in six races at the Motorland Aragon, moving 36 points clear of Scott Redding.
Though Ducati came into the back-to-back Spanish events considered favourites given its dominance at the circuit in 2019, Rea nonetheless rode around the Kawasaki’s comparative deficit in straight line speed to negate his rivals’ advantage.
Capping off a successful pair of weekends with a superb victory in race two at Aragon following a fierce fight with both Redding and Michael Ruben Rinaldi, Rea has established a comfortable buffer at a crucial moment with only three rounds and nine races remaining in 2020.
“We got off to a good start in the Superpole race but when Scott came past quite early it disturbed my rhythm a bit. He set a very good pace. I was strong in the first part of the circuit and although I enjoyed the ten-lap race I realised that today it was going to be second.
“In race two I realised that instead of managing the race I needed to go through, and then I had a huge ‘moment’. I went all in, full gas in that race. You have to ride on 100% but not make any mistakes.
“It was more a race for me trying to be clean and not making any errors. With the entry speed I could carry and the stopping performance from the Ninja ZX-10RR – also how we kept the tyre until the end – I felt like we had a better package.”
Rea’s three wins means he is now only four wins shy of becoming the first person to reach 100 WorldSBK career victories.
