Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jonathan Rea is ‘vibing’ a return to Misano World Circuit, Marco Simoncelli this weekend after a positive showing at Estoril.

Hoping to build on the momentum from his Sunday double in Portugal, Rea is harnessing his previous eight race wins - including his debut on the top step in WorldSBK - at the Italian venue. With five already to his name this season, one more than championship leader Alvaro Bautista, he trails the Ducati man by just 17 points heading into round four and is more than gearing up for the fight.

“Misano is always a race I look forward to, for many reasons,” Rea explained. "It was the scene of my first WorldSBK race win back in 2009, which was very special. It is also more to do with the area around the track. It is an incredibly nice area and I always find some time to go to the beach; more recently with my family and the kids too. They enjoy that.

“Misano has a cool vibe to race weekend also the Italian fans bring something really special to WorldSBK. Now we can look forward to carrying on with our recent momentum. We had a very positive Estoril weekend so the idea is to start with a good vibe, a good feeling, and keep working, step-by step. Misano is possibly one of the real summer races, so it should be quite hot. I am looking to see where we stack up on day one and work from there.”