Rea ‘frustrated’ with FP2 crash, completes only seven laps
Jonathan Rea heads into today’s opening WorldSBK race day at San Juan on the backfoot after missing most of FP2.
The Kawasaki rider finished a solid P3 during FP1, however, an early crash at turn six in the afternoon resulted in his ZX10-RR machine getting completely destroyed.
Rea was fine and walked away from the crash unhurt, but following Portimao, a round in which Rea crashed twice at, it’s far from the start he needed.
Add to that Toprak Razgatlioglu’s stunning Friday performance - topped both sessions by over half a second, and Rea has work to do ahead of today’s Superpole and race one.
Speaking after his crash, Rea said: "I’m frustrated because we lost a lot of time in the session; I went down quite early in the first 15 minutes of the session.
"I just rolled in towards the back straight on the entry and just lost the front. I was building my confidence step-by-step and overstepped the mark.
"I am not sure if I was off-line on the dirty part of the track or just a little bit too much braking and then went down. The bike wasn’t salvageable to get back, so we lost out on the full session."
The lack of running meant Rea was unable to try different tyre compounds including the soft rear, but with team-mate Alex Lowes going very well in FP2 - finished P3, Rea does have information to work with.
"We never got the chance to use the soft tyre, as it seems that’s bringing a little bit of time for everybody, but we still have tomorrow," added Rea.
"Alex was able to do a complete run on it so we have some information on it for tomorrow. The bike is working well, the track has rubbered in well compared to previous years I’ve ridden here so it is quite consistent and fast; let’s see what happens tomorrow."
