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 str💝uggle bus," says Jonathan Rea
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Jonathan Rea’s frustrating weekend in Barcelona concluded with P8 in Race 2 at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:WorldSBK second round.
The Yamaha rider “fried the clutch” on the starting line of Race 1 and retired without completingཧ a single lap, but fared better on Sunday.
Rea was P13 in the Superpole race after a Lap 1 incident w♔here he was squeezed off-track.
Impressively, in Rac𓆉e 2 on Sunday afternoon, Rea made up four positions within the first lap after starting from the fifth ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚrow.
He settled for eighth, and reacted:&n♏bsp;“Overall, it’s been a very disappointing weekend.
“Like the trend of Phillip Island, we have made progress even if🌼 it might not look like tha♛t.
“W🌄e’ve taken our first points of the season 𝐆in Race 2. Race 2 was a problem-free race without issues.
“I struggled starting from P13 because you don’t have track position and you have to be a bit more aggress💫i📖ve in the beginning.
“Then, after that, I’d already wasted some tyre and then tried to conserve as muc♒h 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 pace a little bit𒉰 but not enough. I was catching but I ran out of laps.
“There arജe some positives in there; it’s not where we want to be right now but we’ll move onto Assen and try and have an open min🧸d with what could happen there.
“The tide has to changဣe; we’ve had a lot of issues thrown our way and we’re dealing with them in a really good way as a team by trying to breathe and turn the page.”
Rea’s Pata Prometeon Yamaha teammate Andrea Locatelli craꦫshᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚed out of Race 2 on the first lap.
Sunday in Barcelona belonged to Toprak Razgatlioglu (Superpole winner) and Alvaಞro 💧Bautista (Race 2 winner).
Ex-Kawasaki legend Rea has not been, so far, among 🏅the frontrunners♌ in 2024.
“You don’t have to be too far off the pace now to be fighting outside the top ten and I don’t have that ultimate pace on t𝔍he bike yet,” he said.
“I’m s♍till finding my feet and trying to understand the bike.
“I’m really pushing the team to give me what I need to be f🀅ast. It’s taking 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 place to go next to try and score some big points.
“You have𓄧 to take these small wins; we’re not figh♍ting for the podium, that’s always the target.
“The class is stacked; last year, you could b🅷e a little bit off and ඣfight easily in the top ten.
“Now, if something’s not right or not there or the stars aren’t🌃 aligning, ൲you’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 som♓e of that but we probably didn’t prepare in the right way either with Free Practice 3 being tough.
“When you start from the fifth row, you💃r race is almost written on the wall.
“Assen’s focus will be gettingඣ 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 well.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sport🍨s for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
