Rea keeping ‘championship in mind; target is to come away with smaller deficit’
With the 2021 World Superbike championship finely poised heading into round 12 in Argentina, Jonathan Rea is in an unfamiliar position of needing to chase down series leader Toprak Razgatlioglu.
While Rea does have experience of coming from behind to win a title (2019), it was achieved in very different circumstances as he overturned a greater deficit to Alvaro Bautista much earlier in the season before going on to dominate.
However, with Razgatlioglu extending his points lead last time out and often getting the better of Rea in recent rounds, the Yamaha rider is performing at his best just when he needs to, something that can’t be said about Rea.
The Kawasaki rider was fortuitous to come away with just a 24 point deficit after Razgatlioglu suffered a mechanical failure which caused him to crash in the final race of the weekend - points lead was 49 before that happened.
But with just two rounds left and everything still to play for, Rea has begun ‘to think about the championship’, while reducing the gap further in San Juan, Argentina, is the main goal.
"I am very excited about the potential for Argentina. Villicum is a track that I have enjoyed in the past. It is relatively new to the WorldSBK calendar but I think I have won four out of the five races there," said Rea.
"I enjoy the layout of the track; it is quite quirky. It seemed impossible to do flyaway rounds this year so credit to the San Juan Government, Dorna and everyone for making it happen. And all the teams as well, because it is really tough to plan a long haul round with all the restrictions - but we are going.
"I am looking forward to it. After feeling really good and strong on the bike in Portugal it is good to go to Argentina now and hopefully carry that confidence on.
"Of course, it is time to think about the championship. We need to keep that in our minds, work hard and try to decrease the deficit in points.
"The target is to come away from Argentina with a smaller deficit in the championship, to take the fight to the final round."
