Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea goes into the summer break with momentum on his side and one hand on the WorldSBK title, after claiming his ninth win of the season.
Starting from the third row of the grid, Rea and his Kawasaki teammate, Tom Sykes, made quick progress through the pack, with Sykes leading the early stages. When the opportunity presented itself, Rea pounced and took the lead from his teammate, before ultimately opening a comfortable winning margin.
“The team gave me an incredible bike today, and we made a brave change in the setting which worked amazing,” said Rea. “To have this result and to go into the summer break is a really nice way to do that, it’s a long flight home but a massive thanks for my team for building a good bike.”
“I see the Hayden family here this weekend, and it’s impossible not to be here and think of him, and I want to dedicate this to him and his family.”
It was an emotional victory for Rea, and the aftermath of it saw his elation clear for all to see. Having endured a relatively tough time of late, a tire failure at Donington Park, and crashing with Chaz Davies in Misano, but now goes into the summer break with a 59-point lead over Sykes.
“Yeah you’ve got to be happy,” admitted Sykes after finishing second. “Today I tried my hardest, but today we missed that little bit more. The lap times stayed consistent, and we weren’t much faster than yesterday.
“We were missing some traction and every corner it added up. We tried to make the most of it, but it wasn’t to be, and now we will try to get to the bottom of our problem.”
For Chaz Davies, winner of yesterday’s Race 1, the Ducati rider was hamstrung by a lack of initial progress in the race.
Whereas Rea and Sykes hit the front immediately, it was a different story for Davies, and it took him longer to get past the midfield runners. While he had a faster pace than Sykes in the closing laps, there was simply too much ground to make up.
“Like some other races this year, Kawasaki are able to make a really good start, and there was little I could do,” said the Welshman. “At one point, Tom was on the radar, I thought that I would be able to catch him, but I ran out of laps.”
“I’m very happy with this weekend and after Misano, this is exactly what we needed and now we can look forward to the summer break.”
Photos: © 2017 Jensen Beeler / Asphalt & Rubber – Creative Commons – Attribution 3.0
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