Rea ‘on the limit’ at Most, brings up 200 podiums in WorldSBK

Jonathan Rea reaches 200 WorldSBK podiums at Autodrom Most, but a double race one fall dents his championship lead.
Jonathan Rea celebrates 200 WorldSBK podiums, Czech WorldSBK superpole race, 8 August 2021
Jonathan Rea celebrates 200 WorldSBK podiums, Czech WorldSBK superpole…
© Gold and Goose

Jonathan Rea has made yet more history after claiming his 200th and 201st WorldSBK podiums at Autodrom Most. 

The six-time series champion’s podiums both came after recovering from a race one that saw him crash from third and then again from 11th. 

It’s a rostrum tally that puts him over 70 clear of the next best - Australian Troy Corser who has 130. 

But while a new milestone was reached, it was a disappointing weekend regarding his championship lead. 

A 37 point gap has been reduced to just three points after Toprak Razgatlioglu finished ahead of Rea in every race - including two wins. 

It wasn’t just race one where Rea seemed to be ‘on the limit’, but also the Superpole race as he made a mistake at turn one - the same corner he suffered crash #1 at, which cost him any chance of claiming a possible win.

"In the Superpole race I was completely on the limit, extracting all the potential from our Ninja ZX-10RR. It was a fun race but I made a small mistake and got sucked in behind Toprak [ Razgatlioglu] a little bit," added Rea. 

"In the second race I had opted for the hard rear tyre, the more conservative option, because I never did many laps with the SCX tyre, except in the Superpole race for ten laps. 

"My early rhythm was OK but I got a little bit stuck behind Locatelli, but after I went past him could not close the gap to Scott [Redding] and Toprak. 

"They had better rhythm today so it was more about third. I did not accept that on the grid but I thought maybe in the second part of the race it would come to me because I had the hard tyre, but I started with less grip and the drop off was the same. 

"We are only halfway through the championship and the twists and turns that have happened already can happen in the second half of the season as well.

"At least I am at the top with a very small points gap to Toprak but we know who we are fighting and what we are fighting with. We have a lot of experience to lean on from the past, so I feel in a good position."

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