Jonathan Rea WorldSBK return “tougher than I expected”

Jonathan Rea has admitted that his return to Wor🐻ldSBK has been “tougher than I expected”.

Jonathan Rea, 2025 Italian WorldSBK. Credit: Gold and Goose.
Jonathan Rea, 2025 Italian WorldSBK. Credit: Gold and Goose.
© Gold & Goose

The long-awaited return to racing for 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Jonathan Rea at the Italian WorldSBK was a “tougher weekend than I e꧒xpected,” according to the Northern I🐓rish rider.

This weekend’s WorldSBK Italian Round was Rea’s first 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:World Superbike event since the Spanish Round at Jerez last October, theไ six-time champion having suffered multiple fractures in his left foot while testin🔴g at Phillip Island in February.

The two-and-a-half months without riding a WorldSBK machine 🎶had not only allowed Rea’s foot to heal but also for his race fi𝔉tness to erode.

That, combined with a relatively unfaﷺmiliar Yamaha R1 with the new Superconcession chassis, resulted in a weekend without points for Rea, who was ultimately pleased to have been able to ride after such an amount of time off and to complete the weekend.

“It’s been a tougher weekend than I expected, but I knew we had to start somewhere,” Rea said after Race 2 at C🌜remona.

“The target of the weekend in my own mind was just to try꧑ and commit to racing, get passed fit and do my best to complete all three races with no mistakes.

“We completed that target, of course I wasn’t as competitive as I wanted to be, but considering I was only fully weight-bearing and wa📖lking without my air boot three weeks ago I can accept that.”

Rea said that his physical struggles were more ꦛin his upper body than in the ༒foot he injured in Australia.

“Coming back at Cremona, a track I did🅰n’t race at last year and also super physical, I suffered more in my upper body than💛 I did in my foot to be honest, because I was compensating quite a lot riding with my arms instead of my legs,” he explained.

“Even though the bike didn’t feel perfect, the team has done everything to try to make me more comfꦇortable and encourage me through this di✅fficult weekend.

“I have no doubt better days🙈 are coming! It was always goi𒁏ng to be a process whether I came back here or came back in Most, so [this is] ‘weekend one’ and hopefully we can get on a roll forward from this point.”

Locatelli: “A really difficult weekend for us

While 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Andrea Locatelli was able to f𓄧inish in the top-10 in both Sunday races following his crash in Rac✅e 1, the Italian was left to conclude that his home round had been “really difficult”.

“It was a really difficult weekend for us, unfortunately we did not take any goodꦍ results here in Cremo♈na,” he said.

“We were fighting to start from further back on the grid – but it does not matter about this because also when I made a great start in Race 2 it was difficult to sta❀y there.

“We need to look at what happened and how to improve b🌠ecause I was fighting a lot with a big, big vibration this morning and all Sunday.

“Now, I am looking forward and don’t think too much about the🍌 missed opportunity – it was a big shame to not be faster, after the good events like Portimao and Assen, I was expecting that also here we could be fast.

“Sometimes in the racing life this happens!”

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