Kawasaki official Jonathan Rea found someone to talk to this season in a WSBK championship which he had made his kingdom for six years. A Turk by the name of Razgatlioglu is after his crown and after the first of three races scheduled for this weekend at Magny-Cours, the Northern Irishman felt it falter even more. For five points he is no longer in control of the championship, which he had approached when arriving in Nièvre tied with the Yamaha rider. He will now have to take risks...
This championship WSBK may have entered its moment of truth this weekend Magny-Cours. The challenger Razgatlioglu jostled, during the first of the three expected races in Nièvre, the king Sale who has convinced himself that he will not be able to keep this subject under control. He will have to face him for a decisive fight. The Turk is on another level than Baptist in 2019, which put him on the ropes at the start of the campaign, before falling into line. What Kenan Sofuoglu’s protégé stubbornly refuses to do.
In his analysis of this first game of the weekend, the pilot Kawasaki does not hide that his counterpart at R1 gives him a hard time: “ It's true that I'm a consistent rider and consistency helped me win the World Championships. Even against Toprak, I try to be consistent, but maybe it's not enought ».
Jonathan Rea: “ we didn't win, but I won the best I could do »
To show that the Turk is a particular adversary, he specifies: “ in the past when I was fighting with Davies, Bautista and Redding I was consistent, but at the same time we also improved with the bike during the season, raising the bar. Now, however, it is not enough to be consistent, because the level of the world championship has increased and therefore you have to take risks in certain situations. Because maybe during the weekend you find yourself 5 fast drivers and you can only finish in the top five. In Navarre and Most we saw Redding strong, but next to him also Locatelli. Let's not forget Gerloff either. Then we'll see what happens. We definitely need to work to grow and take steps forward ».
He finishes : " apart from that, the result of Race 1 is positive, we did not win, but I won the best I could do avoiding risks and consolidating the second position, which I still consider a positive result. This race allowed me to study my competitors a lot and at the same time find a lot of data to analyze and compare with the engineers ". See you tomorrow, Sunday, for the restitution of these acquired knowledge on the track.
