Rea happy with second in race two

Kawasaki Racing’s Jonathan Rea says that he is happy with the second place he achieved in the second race of the weekend at Magny-Cours, as he felt that this was the best possible result he could take away from the 21-lap contest.

For the first time this season, the Northern Irishman finished a race off of the podium on Saturday, after his call to go from wet tyres to intermediates didn’t quite pay off. Rea still took the chequered flag in fourth whilst teammate and championship rival Tom Sykes only managed third, meaning Rea only lost three points in the standings.

Coming into Sunday’s second race with a 44-point advantage, it would be another 21-lap KRT duel. Rea was passed early on by Sykes and couldn’t find away back ahead until lap 18, when a much-planned dive up the inside at Turn 5 stuck. However, by the time he’d cleared the Yorkshireman, race leader Chaz Davies was too far up the road and second was the maximum result available to the championship leader.

Nonetheless, Rea still finished ahead of his teammate, which meant that he extended his championship lead, even if it was only by a handful of points. Rea now heads to the next round at Jerez with a 48-point advantage and his first shot at securing his second successive world title.

“I tried to plan my pass on Tom because he is strong right now and he is hard to pass at the best of times. When I overtook under braking, unfortunately it let Chaz come past us. Then I had to try to pass Tom again but already the gap to Chaz was too much. Maybe I spent too much time behind Tom but he is riding so well. I am happy with my race because second place was the best I could do and I am happy with the way I rode,” explained Rea.

“We need to improve the bike set-up in some areas but all things considered I am happy with the result. It is a 48-point gap now and it is nice to extend the championship lead, even if by one point after Lausitzring last time and by another single point here! Championships can be won by a point so every one of them is important. If we can just have a clean end to the season hopefully we can do the job.”