No victory but relief for Rea and Razgatlioglu

The two championship leaders were certainly not able to fight for victory in Navarre, but they both saved the furniture in Race 1.

Victory will have eluded them for the benefit of Scott Redding, but in the end there is little doubt that Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu must have found their accounts at the end of Race 1 in Navarre. The first has in fact managed to get back into the lead by regaining a few points on his rival, while the second can consider himself lucky to have only lost four small units on the championship leader after a poor qualifying session .

In Rea's case, we can see that the Kawasaki has difficulty adapting to hot temperatures like those which raged in the North of Spain this Saturday. You don't have to look far to find proof of this: Friday during the first day of free practice, the Northern Irishman was in fact uncompromising during the FP1 contested in significantly more difficult conditions. fresh than during FP2 in the afternoon, at the end of which he could not do better than seventh.

The Kawasaki in difficulty under high temperatures

And even if his team revised its copy in the meantime, the deficit to be made up was undoubtedly too great to hope to fight regularly for victory today. “ We had a solid race », assured Rea at the microphone of the Superbike official website. " I have to say it's not a great track for us. Yesterday when we arrived I was certainly the fastest in the morning but I then had problems in the afternoon with the heat. My team, however, managed to change the settings of the bike, but there was still a little something missing. thing. »

If the Kawasaki rider wants to win tomorrow, he will have to take care of the front of his machine, which is visibly suffering today. Sure to have the necessary speed to perform well – Rea signed the Superpole in the morning, his seventh in a row, a record since Ben Spies in 2009 – all that remains is to maintain the pace of the race to achieve victory.

" In some areas I really felt in it and able to ride with Scott [Redding], but as soon as the temperature of the front tire increased I had problems », continues the title holder. “The idea tomorrow is therefore to manage to remove part of this stress that we inflict on the front tire, and ultimately to gain stability. The idea is to really be able to ride ahead over the distance, because in reality I really wasn't far in terms of performance, even if a few mistakes kept me behind. »

An error and pronounced tire degradation for Razgatlioglu

Only eighth on the grid after a failed qualifying session, Toprak Razgatlioglu can have the satisfaction of only giving up four points to his Northern Irish opponent. It is true that the latter could just as easily have won the race, and remained in the middle of the ranking.

But the Turk showed character by starting a good comeback to reach the top 5 on the first lap, before committing, by his own admission, a big mistake in the next loop. “ Johnny [Jonathan Rea] and Scott [Redding] were very fast, but on the second lap I made a big mistake, because I ended up in neutral and had to re-engage first then,” explains the Yamaha rider. “ Everyone got away from the front at that point, and as hard as I tried to come back, it wasn't enough to catch up with the two leaders. »

Especially since the R1 also suffered from premature wear of its rubbers. Which was not without causing some fear in number 54. “The race was not easy for me, especially because of the heat, but it was the same conditions for everyone », continues Razgatlioglu. " After Only five laps I felt a strong degradation in my tires, and I started to lose the front in almost every corner. But I did my best and in the end I still finished on the podium, which allows us to take good points in the perspective of the championship. But it's not enough for me, and tomorrow I'm going to try to do it again better. »

This promises a three-way battle for breathtaking victory tomorrow. Can't wait for Sunday, as someone else would say...