After enjoying his best race results of 2024 in Estoril one week ago, Jonathan Rea suffered a much more disappointing race in the first outing at this w𓂃eekend’s Spanish Round at Jerez.

Rea’s poor Saturday began in Superpole, qualifying down in 16th, and even though he made a strong start to the race he was unable to make much progress after the first cor💞ne🐟rs.

“I got an okay start, found myself in better track𝓰 position from P16 into turn one,” Rea told WorldSBK.com.

“From there, it was honestly really tough. I felt like I was fighting the bike, th🍌e꧋ temperature went up from what we used most of the weekend.

“The bike felt out of balance, both front and rear, I had a lot of warnings from the front and 🐽I just felt something like a hinge in the middle of the b💫ike, like on the edge of the tyre [there was] no traction.

“So, a lot of things to work on. I felt like I wasꦏ miles away, I wasn’t enjoying the bike at all.

“But, overall, it doesn’t take too much of an impro🎶vement to put us back in that gaggle that was the battle for fifth, back to where I was in P11.”

Rea added that, although he tried to be as clear as possible in his technical debrief🔯 after the race, he was unsure exactly what to do to make progress.

“I tried to be as clear as I could,” he said, “🐎but it’s very difficult to know what to do to improve tomorr🐠ow.”

Rea’s Pata Prometeon Yamaha teammate, Andrea Locatelli, had a much better Saturday than Rea, finishing third. However, Rea said 🌱there wasn’t much he could learn from his teammate.

“It’s different riding styles and different s✃etups,” Rea explained. “Just bolting in his setup, which is quite different to mine, is not going to work because it takes time; he brakes in quite a different way, he demands things from the bike that are really different.

“So, I’m not sure what I can learn there. But it’s really encouraging to ﷽know that he did a really good race, put the Yamaha R1 o💖n the podium.

“So, that’s the benchmark, that’s where I should be. Just now, I don’t fe𒐪el like I’m in the ballpark with my base setup.

꧟“We’ll try to work on that because I should be there, I feel like I should be at leastᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ the same level as my teammate, so work to do, for sure.”