Jonathan Rea: “The tide has to change; we’ve had a lot of issues thrown our way”
🐻“Now, if something’s not right or not there or the stars aren’t aligning, you’re on the s🍎truggle bus," says Jonathan Rea
168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Jonathan Rea’s frustrating weekend in Barcelona concluded with P8 in Race 2 at the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:WorldSBK second round.
The Yamaha rider “fried the clutch” on the starting line of Race 1 and retired without completing a single lap, but fared better on Sunday🥀.
Rea was P13 in the 🉐Superpole race after a Lap 1 incident where he was squeezed off-track.
Impressively, in Race 2 on Sunday afternoon, Rea made up four positio♏ns within the first lap after starting from 𝓀the fifth row.
He sett꧟led for eighth, and reacted: “Overall, it’s been a very disappointing weekend.
“Like the trend of Phillip Island, we have m🌸ade progress even if it might not look li🐭ke that.
ꦬ“We’ve taken our first points of the season in Race 2. Race 2 was a problem-free race without issues.
“I struggled starting from P13 because yoꦚu don’t have track position and you have to be a🍒 bit more aggressive in the beginning.
“Then, after that, I’d already wasted some tyr𓆉e and then tried to conserve a♊s much as possible.
“Guys like Remy Gardner, Danilo Petrucci🦩 and Michael van der Mark and Alex, I thought they’d come back to me at the end.
“They dropped their pacꦦe a l✃ittle bit but not enough. I was catching but I ran out of laps.
“There are some positives in there; it’s not where we want to be right now but we’ll move onto Assen and try andꦑ have an open mind with what c🃏ould happen there.
“The tide has to change; we’ve had a lot of issues thrown our way an൲d we’re dealing with them in a really good wa💟y as a team by trying to breathe and turn the page.”
Rea’s 🌄;Pata Prom꧙eteon Yamaha teammate Andrea Locatelli crashed out of Race 2 on the first lap.
Sunday in Barcelona belonged to Toprak Razgatlioglu (Superpole winner) and Al🅷varo Bautista (Race 2 winner).
Ex-Kawasaki legend Rea has not b💛een, so far, among the fro♐ntrunners in 2024.
“You don’t have to be too far off the pace now to be fighting outside the t𝔉op ten and I don’t have that ultimate pace on the bike yet,” he said.
“I🤪’m still ꧒finding my feet and trying to understand the bike.
“I’m really pushing the team to give me what I need to be fast. It’s 𝓰taking time but 🔴I’m sure it will arrive.
“I really believe in the people around me so there’s a lot of credit to them; they deserve this as much as I do. We’ll keep with it, not give up and Assen is a happy hunting ground for me so there’s no better 𝓰place to go next to try and score some b🦄ig points.
“Yo♏u have to take 🌸these small wins; we’re not fighting for the podium, that’s always the target.
“The class is stacked; last year, you could be ✨a little bit off and fight easily in the top ten.
“Now, if something’s no�🌌�t right or not there or the stars aren’t aligning, you’re on the struggle bus.
“We need to maximise our weekends and try and🧔 stay out of trouble. Superpole is super important; I messed up my lap so I have to shoulder some of that but we probably didn’t prepare in the right way either with Free Practice 3 be♔ing tough.
“When you start from the fifth row, your race is al🧸mos♐t written on the wall.
“Assen’s focus will be getting a bike that I can race with well but🐼 also starting further up the grid. We can’t force the wave to come but when it does, I’m sure we’ll ride it ꦏwell.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from Americ🐽an sports, to football, to F1.
