Jonathan Rea says the 'personal highligh🍒t' of his short MotoGP stint this season was beating Italian legend Valentino Rossi at Aragon in Spain.

The World Superbike star was drafted into the Repsol Honda MotoGP team as a replacement for the injured Casey Stoner🌄.

Rea finished eighth on his series debuꦿt at Misano and seventh at Aragon, where he took the chequered flag ahea﷽d of Ducati rider Rossi.

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

"I achieved two top-10 finishes but my personaꦦl highlight was beating Valentino Rossi in Aragon," Rea told BBC Sport.

"Overall I did a good job and can walk away🐼 witཧh my head held high.

"Bothꦦ championships are world class but, MotoGP was very different for me and it took me a while to get used to the tyre𒁏s.

"I🤪 came away from the experience as a much be🍬tter 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 Honda World Superbike team for 2013 under the Ten Kate umbrella.

Rea was strongly linked to the satellite Gresini Honda outfit 🦋for next season and confirmed h🧸e was in the frame for the ride, which finally went to Alvaro Bautista.

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

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

"I'm happy to stay in World Superbikes with Honda for the moment but m꧃y eventual goal is to go to MotoGP full-time and show what I can 🧔do there."

Rea finished fifth overall in the Wꦿorld Superbike Championship this year.