‘Too many moments to remember’ for Rea in sketchy Donington race one

WorldSBK championship leader Jonathan Rea claimed second place in race one at Donington Park, after overcoming four big moments throughout.

Rea’s title advantage has gone from 20 points to 15 as Toprak Razgatlioglu came from 13th to win. 

While following the Yamaha rider, Rea had a big moment coming out of Hollywood and down craner curves on lap three - took to the grass after a near highside. 

This wasn’t the first challenging moment Rea faced, as Redgate (turn 1) on lap two proved to be a problem for the 34 year-old on entry and exit of the corner. 

The Kawasaki rider did start to reel Razgatlioglu back in after the gap went over three seconds, however, with the gap at 1.5s, Rea suffered another near highside on lap eight which increased the gap to three seconds once again. 

Speaking about the sketchy conditions and tight dry line, Rea said: "Yeah definitely because the line was so, so tight, especially in the first sector. Braking from T1, then the top of Hollywood (corner) and down craner curves was so, so critical. 

"If you were one centimeter off-line on a wet part with slicks (does a sliding gesture); I had a few big, big, big moments, too many to remember to be honest. 

"Was lucky to be in parc ferme at the end of the race, but I was a little bit frustrated because I didn’t feel great with the bike compared to yesterday. 

"Yesterday in the dry I felt a lot more under control, the grip level was really good, but today the bike behaviour was a bit different. 

"We have to look at the data and understand why and hope to come back tomorrow. Toprak [Razgatlioglu] was just riding away from me and did a solid, solid race." 

Rea is no stranger to using his off-road skills, as a similar incident at the opening round in Aragon occured when avoiding a crash with Garrett Gerloff.

While Rea lost a lot of time during the grass cutting moment, he joked about going full throttle in order to not limit the time loss. 

Rea added: "I lost a lot of time, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get back on the gas to try and go through it a bit fast [laughs]. 

"I knew the gap behind was big enough and I got back on in the same track position, but it gave Toprak 3-4 seconds up the road. 

"From there it was really, really hard to eat into that and then at the end I understood my position."