Australia WorldSBK: Jonathan Rea: ‘Target is to be there at the end, still fighting for second with Toprak’
The Kawasaki rider got the better of new WorldSBK champion 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Alvaro Bautista by just 0.022s in FP1, before extending his leadꦦ to over a tenth in the afternoon.
While his pace was strong over a full race distance, something that’s let him down in recent races compared to Bautista and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Toprak Razgatlioglu, Rea will have to contend with the Ducati rider in particular as Bautista looked to be th✅e strongest.
After completing stints of 11 and nine laps during FP2, Rea said: "Like I said in the last races, we’ve been quite far from 𒊎Alvaro 🎃and Toprak in terms of race time. At the end of the race, we’ve been struggling.
"My only target is just trying to be there at the end, keep consistent, give my 100% and if it’s possible to do well then so be it. I try not to worry aꦺbout them.
"Alvaro’s alreౠady done his job this season and with Toprak we’re still fighting for second in the Champion🐼ship. He has a big gap, but anything can happen with the forecast.
"With my pa💮ce being good, we can fight at the front and try to take it to the last race 🦩at least."
Rea and Kawasaki on course for a first WorldSBK win since Estoril?
With Razgatlioglu struggling on day-one, Rea could haꦚve ꦓfewer challengers than normal as he attempts to win his sixth race of the year.
An early title contender, Rea and Kawasaki struggled as the year went on, which has resulted in the 35-year-olജd dropping to 113 points behind Bautista.
Keen to finish his season in style though, Rea acknowledged that he and the team need to be efficient when analysing their performance ahead of Saturday, while beꦐtter turning is the main im𒅌provement that needs to be made.
Rea ꦐadded: "I really enjoyed the bikeꦓ from Lap 1, the guys did a pretty good guesstimate at the setup. Phillip Island is quite a unique track because, with experience, the more you try at this circuit, sometimes the slower you go.
"I tried to start calmer, be smooth with the bike, not fighting the bike and things werꦇe working.&nb꧟sp;
"I just tried to be very clear with my comments to my𒅌 guys to make the bike setup changes between FP1 and FP2 and the bike was good.
"There are a few areas we 🔴really need to improve tomorrow. We’ll sit down tonight and analyse that to make things a little bit easier over a race distance.
"A little bit more turning is top of the agenda, and also thro♍ttle connection in some corners needsꦡ to be a little bit smoother. We have to be pretty satisfied."
