EXCLUSIVE: Jonathan Rea on WorldSBK title "dogfight"
Jonathan Rea says Nicolo Bulega is “doing a good job” in his WorldSBK title battle with Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Six-time World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea says Nicolo Bulega is “doing a good job” in his head-to-head battle with Toprak Razgatlioglu for this year’s WorldSBK title.
Rea, who battled with Razgatlioglu for the 2021 world title, says it looks like Bulega is “enjoying” his on-tack battles with Razgatlioglu.
“I think Nicolo’s [Bulega] been doing a good job, he’s beaten Toprak [Razgatlioglu] straight up, Toprak’s beat him straight up,” Jonathan Rea exclusively told Crash.net ahead of the UK WorldSBK at Donington.
“It’s always a dogfight, he understands that.
“From what it looks like and how he’s coming across, he’s enjoying that, so it’s like let the best man win.
“I think the fans are enjoying it and I’m sure it’ll be a great battle until the end.”
Jonathan Rea back at the front in WorldSBK?
As for himself, the battle at the front of World Superbike is “out of reach” for Rea, he says. The Pata Yamaha rider is instead focused on trying to get into the fight for third – which, at Donington, Rea would go on to be closer to than at any other point in 2025, finishing inside the top-six in the first two races of the weekend before finishing 15th in Race 2 with a brake issue.
“Battling with Toprak [Razgatlioglu] and Bulega is quite out of reach,” he admitted.
“That third place is generally Alvaro [Bautista] – depending on if he does a good race, a bad race, mistakes, whatever – which means, when you put everything right and do a good job and you’re feeling good with the bike, you can race for the podium.
“But we haven’t been able to put ourselves in that position right now.”
Rea added that the depth of field in WorldSBK at present means it’s tough to get to the front of that group. This tallies with comments from Scott Redding, who described the WorldSBK depth of field as “madness” at Donington.
“The depth of the field is incredible,” Rea said.
“You have to look at Superpole and just improving by a-couple-of-tenths-of-a-second, if you’re in the top-15, could put you in the front few rows.
“It’s incredibly tight. Of course, the level at the front is incredibly high, but I think it’s the depth of field that’s more impressive.”
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
