The Kawasaki rider placed a serious option on the title by achieving the hat-trick at Assen, but the course of the season pushes him to humility for the rest of the events.
The wish of Jonathan Rhea will have been granted in the Cathedral of Assen! Landed in the Netherlands two points behind the leader of the ranking Toprak Razgatlioglu, which in itself was nothing dramatic but still marked a clear change compared to the course of previous seasons where the Northern Irishman had shown himself to be hegemonic, the latter was able to put the situation back on track in the championship.
And again, in style, the Kawasaki rider winning all the races contested, to sign his first hat-trick since Portimão last year, and the fourth of his career. A hard blow to Razgatlioglu, who had wet his neck to say the least to lead the general standings before the Dutch round.
But Rea was without rival at Assen, setting a new record during the Superpole (he remains undefeated in qualifying this season) before beating up his opponents in the three races that followed.
Major work undertaken on the Ninja
And if the Briton seemed “easy”, we should not overlook all the work done in the Kawasaki stand, particularly on the wheelbase of the Ninja: “ My team did an extraordinary job. We changed the settings of the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR to be honest,” Rea admitted afterwards to the Superbike official website. " We touched the wheelbase, which made it more agile and able to change direction better. manner. »
Direct consequence of these new settings: The Japanese machine proved to be more economical with rubber, which allowed its driver to extract even more potential. “ I needed less track, so this allowed me to preserve my tires, Rea continues. “ We won on Saturday with the SCX tire (the soft tire), and today [Sunday] we put on the SC0 (the hard tire) and I was just as able to achieve a good result. But all the credit goes to the hard work done in the KRT garage. »
Now 37 points ahead of Razgatlioglu, Rea can therefore see it coming, even if he wants to be cautious for the rest of the championship. “ The season is still long. We clearly saw today how a single abandonment can change everything championship. »
" Certainly we arrived here late in the standings and we leave as leaders, but it will be very important to continue to do my best in each of the races, and we will see where all this takes us. bring. » The Kawasaki rider is of course referring here to the fratricidal clash which took place at the start of Race 2 between Razgatlioglu and Garrett Gerloff.
Difficult memories of the last edition in the Czech Republic
And let us not believe that these are only elements of language linked to false modesty on the part of Rea. The incident that occurred between the two Yamaha riders echoes difficult memories for the championship leader, and more precisely a collision that occurred with his own teammate in 2018 on the Brno circuit, which at the time was Tom Sykes. The result was not great, with Kawasaki's first zero points in Superbike since the round in Malaysia in 2014. Not to mention the controversy that an incident involving two residents of the same garage always arouses.
The Czech Republic is precisely the next base for the world championship for motorcycles derived from the series, this time on the Most circuit in two weeks. Despite this lackluster history, Rea remains impatient to go there: “I have always enjoyed racing in Brno, the fans there are exceptional. It will be a new track so it will be interesting to discover it and learn about it. We didn't have the opportunity to go there, so the first tests will be dedicated to learning and adjusting the bike well to see where we can stand. But regardless, I'm very excited to find out what our potential is there. »
Ranking – Drivers’ Championship:
Classification credit: WorldSBK.com
