Jonatha🌳n Rea says the 'personal highlight' of his short MotoGP stint this season was beating Italian legend Val♛entino Rossi at Aragon in Spain.

The World Superbike star was drafted into the Repsol Honda MotoGP team as a re🌜pla😼cement for the injured Casey Stoner.

Rea finished eighth on 🀅his series debut at Misano and seventh at Aragon, where he took the chequered flag ahead of Ducatဣi rider Rossi.

Rossi ran off track on lap one🌞 at Aragon after almost clipping the back of Rea. Neverther, the result was a moment the 25-year-old Ulsterman, now based in the Isle of Man, will cherish.

"I achieved two top-10 finishes but my personal hi🍬ghlight was beating Valentino Rossi in Aragon," Rea told🌟 BBC Sport.

"Overall I did a good job and can walk awa𝔉y with my head held highꦏ.

"Both champ🍃ionships are world class but, MotoGP was very different for me and it took me a while to get used 💝to the tyres.

"I came awa🦩y from the experience as a much better rider and hopefully I will come back bigger and stronger for 2013," added Rea, who will be joined by fellow Briton Leon Haslam in the new-look Pata Hond𝕴a World Superbike team for 2013 under the Ten Kate umbrella.

Re🍌a was strongly linked to the satellite Gresini Hond♉a outfit for next season and confirmed he was in the frame for the ride, which finally went to Alvaro Bautista.

"There was an option to go there at one stag꧃e but in the end it didn't materialise," he said.

"One of the big drawbacks of that paddock is that things can be quite politic𝔉a𒉰l and my face didn't fit there at this time.

"I'm happy to stay in World Superbikes with Honda for the moment but my eventual goal i🅺s to go to MotoGP full-time and show what I🅺 can do there."

Rea finished fifth overall in theඣ World Superbike Championship 𝓡this year.