Competitive in all ‘track conditions’, Rea optimistic about Estoril

Jonathan Rea is ‘optimistic’ about this weekend’s Estoril WorldSBK round following competitiveness ‘in all track conditions’ at Aragon.
Jonathan Rea, Aragon WorldSBK 2021
Jonathan Rea, Aragon WorldSBK 2021
© Gold and Goose

This weekend’s round two of the 2021 WorldSBK championship sees Jonathan Rea return to the only circuit in 2020 where he failed to claim a win. 

In fact, last year’s Estoril finale was the only round of the season where Rea did not clinch a podium either. 

But having started the 2021 season in sublime fashion which involved taking his 100th career WorldSBK win, Rea will be an odds-on favorite to at least taste podium champagne. 

While last year’s round wasn’t a great one for the six-time series champion who described his performance as ‘quite average’, Rea does have ‘happy memories’ of the Portuguese venue, as he claimed the title there eight months ago. 

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Speaking ahead of round two, Rea said: "I really enjoyed Estoril last year and I had a lot of happy memories of winning the championship there. 

"But to be honest from a track point of view I was quite average. I never started FP1 in the right way so I always felt I was playing catch up and the weekend was getting away from us. And then I had a crash in Superpole. 

"So, we will bring a fresh mindset and also with the new Ninja ZX-10RR, I am feeling really comfortable. At Motorland we had three different track conditions thrown at us and we were competitive in all of them. 

"I am optimistic because we have worked on some of the weaker aspects and the characteristics that Estoril has - the turning, really stopping and changing direction. So I think the benefits of that will show through when we go there."

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