The Kawasaki rider suffered at the start of the season facing the total domination of his new rival Ducati, but the latter's mistakes helped restore his confidence.
Although he had to lose by a tenth to Alvaro Bautista in Race 2 in Portugal, Jonathan Rhea was the strong man of the weekend with a victory in Race 1 and the Tissot Superpole Race, in addition to a new pole position added to his record. The scenario repeats itself since Misano, where the trend has finally reversed between him and the Spaniard, who had nevertheless crushed the competition until then.
If the Northern Irishman's lead now stands at 91 points in the championship (and brings him ever closer to his fifth coronation), the latter refuses to let his guard down, especially as he continues to see the performance machines from Borgo Panigale in the race. “I don’t think I was that strong, to be honest” he commented to GPOne. “I have always been fast here in the past, this circuit is like a motocross track where you have to completely control the bike and the body, or like an English track. The Ducatis suffer in the first sector but are strong on the rest of the route. I don't think I had the margin I had last year. »
Nevertheless, the four-time reigning world champion recognizes that something clicked on his side, the start of Bautista's slump having clearly made it possible to reverse the balance of power from a psychological point of view: “The goal has always been the title, but after Assen I felt like I was fighting a monster, which now doesn't seem as scary as before. »
“From Jerez onwards, Álvaro started to make mistakes which allowed me to recover points, but at the start of the season he seemed really unbeatable. I really had to hold on until I won at Imola and realized it wasn't a machine. From then on I tried not to give up and to fight in each race for the best possible result. »
And the result is paying off since of the 15 races contested since Imola, Rea has won nine, compared to four for Bautista (the other two having been won by Michael van der Mark and Chaz Davies). But caution remains in order. “There are still quite a few races left and we have already seen how the situation can quickly change” he concluded.
