WorldSBK Most: ‘I had to give in and let them go’ - Rea

No WorldSBK race win for Jonathan Rea since Estoril, but the mixture of his skills and experience, allied to a bike that he and his team know so well, means that he still came away from a difficult track for him in 2021 with two Sunday podiums.

He said it was all a great improvement on last year, so he was as satisfied as he could be without actually taking a wins home. Especially in raxce two.

“I just feel we’re getting everything out of the package,” he said. “You can’t see the mistakes, but when I make a tiny mistake, miss an apex or just lose some time, it’s really difficult to recover.

“With Alvaro and also Toprak, we’re really struggling with engine management and wheelie control, exiting all these first-gear corners. So, exiting the first corner I was just losing ground. If I do everything perfect – brake, acceleration, lean angle – I can just be there, but it’s so difficult to do this every lap consistently.

“So, we need some assistance in this area to make it more easy to manage. Because the gap Alvaro would take from me on the start line, and then also the exit of T1, the effort I made through six, seven, eight, nine, I would be there in ten. I would be there with a heart rate of 310 beats a minute.

“I was so in stress, because the risk you’re taking to be there. So, it was a difficult race. Then I’d spend a little bit of the lap to recover, just to do it all over again, and again, and again. So, it was a difficult race that way. I didn’t make so many mistakes.

“I had to ‘give in’ at the end and let them guys go and just finish my race. Like I said, much better than last year, so I think we can take a lot of positives out of it.”

So is this the worst circuit for the Kawasaki?

“I’m expecting another challenging