The Kawasaki rider, who lost the lead to Razgatlioglu going into turn one, was then pushed down to third after trying to ha﷽ng around the outside of the Yamaha rider into the chicane [lap two].

It was an❀ ambitious move that left Rea compromised on corner exit, thus allowing team-mate Alex Lowes and Alvaro Bautista to🍸 get ahead.

Rea was th🔯en bumped down to fifth by Honda’s Iker Lecuona after braking too late for the♒ Melbourne Loop.

Despite his disappointing start🌸 to a race that promised so much, Rea recovered to claim P2 and with it a haul of 20 points that could prove to be very important later in the season.

It looked as though the KRT rider would need to settle for third, but afte♓r Bautista’s c🐲rash at the final corner, the pole sitter went from a potential scenario of dropping points to the Spaniard to now being 16 behind. 

"In the beginning it was a little bit of a mess in the first few 🐷laps. I tried to get track position as fast as I could and I really trusted myself to go to the front," said Rea. 

"I didn’t think that today Toprak [Razgatlioglu] had tha🍷t sort of rhythm. If I was to do the race again I would have focused on staying behind him and let him do the job [of leading]. 

"I compromised myself going into the chicane on the first lap and I lost track positi🌠on. He did a few solid laps to break the group and when I did get track position I had Alv🐭aro dive-bombing me into the chicane and under the brakes into the Melbourne Loop. 

"It was one of them wh🦹eꦐre on my own I felt I could be okay but when he [Bautista] went down, Toprak had much better rhythm and I had nothing left at the end. I really struggled with the rear grip."

Rea doesn’t believe he could have challenged Razgatliogluꦦ😼, even with a better start  

Rea addꦡed: "There’s no doubt that I would have stayed there for a long 💛time but in the end we suffered today. 

"I don’t see a change in the result, I think we need to change th💧e bike a bit. There’s no excuses and the right guy won the race. We need to improve and it’s as s🔯imple as that." 

'Intention' was to catch Razgatlioglu, not 'defend' from Bautista

Onc🏅e Rea got ahead of Bautista there was a ཧtwo second gap between himself and Razgatlioglu.

But rather than closing in o🦋n the Turkish star, Rea started to come under pressu𒉰re from Bautista before a mistake at the final corner allowed the Ducati rider to get ahead. 

Despite that, Rea was at no point thinkin🐷g about defending during race one: "My intention was to try and attack because you never know. 

"I wasn’t thinking of defending against Alvaro, I was just thinking about Toprak but I rode into some mistakes and then it doe🎉sn’t help when Alvaro’s messing about, being there in the chicane and alongside because you can’t really do your rhythm. 

"The strategy from him worked and I was in trou൩b🍒le in the early laps so he was able to make a gap and ultimately that decided the race."