Saturday at Motorland was as difficult a day as Jonathan Rea has had in 2019 so far. He and his team each made a mistake in Superpole – his team releasing him to try for two fast laps a little bit too late, then Rea running wide in his first lap.

Easing up to save his qualifying rubber, it came to the point where he did not get to set another one before the flag came out to stop the session. He finished up tenth.

Very unlike the normally super-slick four-time champion team and rider combo, but it is perhaps a consequence of having to put in a lot of work in practice to try and get into some kind of competitive stance against the steamroller of Alvaro Bautista and Ducati.

“I was tenth once before on the grid with Kawasaki, and I went on to win that race, but I forget where (Donington Race 2 in 2017). The gap to Alvaro and especially Ducati is too big, so we could not plan to win today," Rea told bikesportnews.com.

"We got the maximum possible. So I am very happy. I am happy with my bike set-up but we can still improve a little bit. I feel like it is a better package than we had last year, and I feel like I am riding better but when you have a new reference and you are really pushing the limit to be better, we are running into some other problems.

The average ultimate lap time is faster, for everybody, this season. We are running into some different issues we have not had before, especially with the front stability of the bike. So even the consequence of making the mistake in Superpole is that we were still trying things in the first ‘out’.

"We did three runs in Superpole and that was still trying to confirm a front-end set-up. It is difficult especially this year with two sessions on Friday. Also Pirelli are bringing new tyres every weekend now. Fronts and rears.

"There really is no time to dedicate to making big changes on the bike because you are always worried about going outside the ballpark… trying to evaluate the tyre options you have and then come to the race.”

And what an opening race, as Rea and his old WorldSBK cronies Alex Lowes, Chaz Davies and even an ever-improving Eugene Laverty, were in the mix – not to mention his old team-mate Tom Sykes on the new and improving BMW, for a while.

“I really did enjoy the race today - really enjoyed it,” grinned Rea. “It was good fun because with Chaz and the Ducati – obviously they have advantages in the final part of the lap, especially on the straight and all the acceleration zones – but I felt like I had to be quite creative with the passes again.

"I could never really pass Chaz on the front end before, but I stuck two passes in -– I think turns five and seven – so for sure we are making progress. I really enjoyed the race but unfortunately I was just too far.

It is different territory for me now and I have to re-evaluate expectations and just try to do the best I can do with my bike. Step-by-step, it is a long year, we will see what happens.”

Rea may have been down in tenth place after his Superpole disasters, but his race, and the dramas within it, started early. “The start was incredible,” he said. “I had a good release and then I had some contact with Reiterberger.

"We were both side by side so it was a real racing accident but after this media debrief I am going to go directly now, to see if he is OK because the guys in my team just told me in parc ferme – I was not aware that he went down.”

Having Reiterberger beside him was already proving a drama before the race began. “It was quite distracting on the grid because he arrived on the grid in the wrong position,” recalled Rea. “He went past his box, to the yellow line, so when the red lights came on he was in kind of panic mode trying to push the bike backwards.

"Anyway, there was a little bit of chaos and I am really sorry he went down. I had some issues with my start this morning but we nailed one in Superpole, and I found myself already with good track position in turn one, fifth or sixth.”

After riding in close proximity with both factory Ducati riders, Bautista and Davies recently, Rea was eventually drawn to say something about the difference between them right now.

“I do not want to say,” said Rea. “Let’s just say one rider is making zero mistakes, and another rider is making a lot of mistakes during the lap.”