WorldSBK Phillip Island: ‘Something is not right’ - Rea

Six time World Champion Jonathan Rea needed a strong first week on his newly homologated (if lightly modified) Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR. A podium position in a fully wet Race One masked the sharp fact that the set-up on the ‘new’ Kawasaki was way off in the two dry Sunday races, leaving Rea seventh and eighth in the races, but a third overall in the championship fight.

No excuses from Rea, as he and his crew now look for the problems and try to fix them before they start again in a few days’ time in Mandalika.

“It was a difficult weekend and a bit of a mixed bag,” Rea admitted. “We have got to take some positives because we have been fast in certain areas but consistently not good enough. We really struggled with set-up and some different factors out there, when the wind changed and the tyre temperatures went up on Friday. But there have been some areas where it has been incredible - in FP3 I was really strong. It is hard to put it altogether to understand where we fell short but clearly today in the long races, especially that long second race, we didn’t quite nail the set-up.

“We were miles off at the end of the race, even after looking after my tyres, using short lines, doing everything in my experience to manage the race and we were still nowhere.

“We dropped off a cliff at the end and it is really frustrating because I have to take some responsibility, because of the direction we have been going, from Monday with this track. Also the crew have to take some responsibility - but that is led by me, my direction and my feedback. We need to have a bit of a look in the mirror and try to understand why we struggled so much. “Moving on to Lombok I don’t expect this to be our benchmark for the rest of the season. We can do