Welcome to the beta version of the new Women & Golf website. Our web monkeys are still hard at work and welcome your feedback.  

Advertisement

WorldSBK Estoril: ‘I just didn’t have the bike’ - Rea

Having fought all the way for a WorldSBK win at Estoril it came down to a rise in track temperature and thus rear end control under braking that held Jonathan Rea back in third place at the flag.

It was such an entertaining and one highly tactile fight between eventual second place rider Toprak Razgatlioglu and Rea that it was a shame neither won. Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista came through on Rea after a mistake under braking, with superior pace and a much superior top end in the last six laps. He would then pass Yamaha’s Razgatlioglu on the straight, much to the Turk’s dismay.

Rea’s expectation that the track temperature would not ride to well over 30°C did not materialise into reality so he had to accept his fate once Bautista went past.

Advertisement

“I just didn’t have the bike in the last laps,” said Rea. “The bike was moving a lot, losing traction, especially entry traction. I couldn’t stop the same as I could in the beginning. Of course, with the harder rear tyre, the tyre drops. It’s just an offset. The softer tyre is faster, but it drops. The harder tyre is a bit slower, but it stays consistent. This tyre dropped a little bit. I think the temperature crept up into the 30s. We were expecting it to stay around 28 degrees, something like that. Just across that border.

"I was happy to be there in the first ten laps. I felt faster than Toprak at that point in the race, but from midpoint, I made a mistake in T1 with my braking.

"The lever came right back to the handlebar. I couldn’t make any more pressure. So, I was jumping on the back brake just to stop. I went wide, and then Alvaro came through. I thought with Alvaro maybe he can take me to Toprak again, but I didn’t have the package today to fight with him. Happy with the points. Happy with the podium. Try to be a bit more competitive tomorrow.”

Rea was asked if the fight between him and Toprak would have been better if they had not fought so much, as Bautista was closing in on them. He said,” I could see he was coming. I can’t just work together with Toprak to beat Alvaro. I have to fight with Toprak also for the championship.

“So, my feeling in the race was I was faster but then at the end of the straight, even if he didn’t out-brake me, I always arrived in turn one and there was a Yamaha on the apex. This kind of back-and-forward was not good for the overall race. Toprak had the same strategy as me. It was just go in the front, go in the front. Alvaro had the better rhythm today. He came from far back. He won the race because in the end, he won by nothing. But he was faster than me, both me and Toprak, from the beginning because he had to come from far. It’s how it was. The only difference I would do if I had to repeat the race is I would use a softer tyre to see how that would go.

“This morning when everyone used this tyre there was a huge drop after ten, fifteen laps. Ten, twelve laps for everybody. Huge. So, I was quite scared. But this six-degrees’ difference compared to the morning to the afternoon was enough to keep this tyre in range for the 21 laps. I think tomorrow we can safely use that one and try and be there for all 21 laps.”

Rea characterised the difference between Bautista on Ducati in 2019 and the version we see this year, saying, “I don’t see him with a big gap, to be honest. 2019 he had a big gap and he was beating us by 15 seconds. Now he’s just there. We have a lot, a lot of racing to go. I feel good with the bike. The difference now, in ’19 there was only me and Alvaro and now there’s three guys. You have to be there every weekend. Of course, the package is working very good.

“Both Alvaro and Ducati are very strong, same with Toprak and Yamaha. All have different strengths, and in a race situation sometimes you have to understand… I can race with Toprak like he can race with me, because the bikes are quite similar. Strategies from a rider point of view are quite similar. Alvaro with completely different engine performance, weight, how he uses the tyre, he can have a completely different strategy than both me and Toprak. Our strategies are more similar, me and Toprak, than Alvaro. When we have to fight, Toprak and I, we have to really fight. It’s gloves off, because you can’t just wait through the straight and have a free pass. That’s why sometimes it looks hard because when you’re battling with a guy like that, there’s no big advantage. Alvaro of course has to work very hard in the corners, but when he arrives in the straight it’s free time.”

In terms of pure pace, Rea was the fastest rider of all for one lap - in Superpole qualifying, with a 1’35.346 and with a new lap record in race one of 1’36.204.

Articles you may like

Advertisement

More WorldSBK

Advertisement
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram