After being beaten into third place in the first WorldSBK race at Estoril, KRT’s Jonathan Rea came back strongly on Sunday to leave with two winner’s trophies.
He got a bit lucky in the Superpole race, by his own admission, but he dragged out all his experience to take the second race win away from Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista with an extravagant block pass that showed all his racecraft and his legendary desire to win every race.
It was another Rea classic victory, but when asked if it was his favourite win, he replied: “I don't know. I don’t have really a best race, but it’s amazing,” he confirmed. “It’s basically a last-lap battle with Alvaro, when he’s been so strong here. So, it means a lot. But the best one, I don't know. I have a lot.”
He says this with no hint of boasting. But, more importantly for him, was the fact that Bautista was so close at the end that Rea could make his successful move. It had not always been thus with Bautista on a Ducati.
The points leader had taken a lead on the last lap that looked irrecoverable for Rea, but unlike the first year Alvaro arrived and dominated almost immediately, Rea was able to be in a position to win. And move to within 17 points of the championship lead. Which pleased Rea, no end.
“Especially to reduce for the championship gap already," he explained. "But the way we were doing it in 2019 felt in some of the strong races where he was strong, like we had no chance. I don’t see that like this this year. I see that we can fight, race-by-race. This has never been a great circuit for us. Last year I won here only because of the right tyre choice for the conditions. This year I felt we were on the same playing field as everyone and we were still able to do a good job. So, I feel we’ve definitely made a step forward. But we still need to work really hard.
“We can see how easy it is for Alvaro to make passes on this circuit compared to Toprak and I. Racing with the both of them was quite different. So, we need to work in that area and see if we can do something with aero or screen to help the bike be more slippy in the air. But from the engine point of view, we’re a little bit in the jail right now.”
What is also different from 2019 is that as well as Alvaro and Ducati, Rea has got the 2021 champion Toprak Razgatlioglu and his championship winning Yamaha to fight with. Even if Razgatlioglu has yet to win a race, and is 52 points behind Bautista compared to Rea’s 17, Rea feels he has to also beat him every weekend, which led to some epic battles between them again. So it is not only about Alvaro this year?
“You have to remember, I’m not just fighting Alvaro. I’m fighting Toprak. He’s not won a race yet this season, but he’s going to be there. There’s going to be some weekends that that top three is reversed. Of course it’s important to always be there, first or second, if you can. Nine points between first and third is a lot. Five from first to second not so much. So, it’s important to always be there with no mistakes. That’s going to be the most important thing. You can’t say anything about we have to work together, because it’s every man for himself. It’s not like a teammate where one has to be sensible and the other has to do the race. If I see Alvaro going and I have no chance, of course I have to fight with Toprak. Or the opposite.
‘Yesterday’s race caught me off guard because I didn’t realise how fast Alvaro was in the end of the race. So, of course the fighting didn’t help our case, but I felt we were fighting for our own position. I guess both of us were confident that if he came, we could still fight with him. He came with such pace in the end, he was much better.”
