www.bikesportnews.com columnist Craig Jones was robbed of his first World Supersport race at Brno this afternoon by a technical fault on his Parkalgar Honda. And to add insult to injury, he had to watch friend and fellow Brit Jonathan Rea take his debut win.
Jones was leading Ten Kate Honda's Andrew Pitt by half a second with five laps to go when he encountered a problem, whcih has been confirmed as a failed coil, and he slowed. This allowed the following group of six riders to get past and although he got going again, Jones had to pull in with just two laps remaining.
The youngster had been in battle for the lead right from lights out, swapping places with Pitt, Rea, Robbin Harms and Bary Veneman. After four laps, Jones and Rea bashed fairings across the line and Pitt took advantage, slipstreaming the pair into turn one.
Two laps later, both Rea and Jones went past the Aussie and with 13 to go, Jones put a move on Rea. The Irishman then made a mistake, running wide and slipping back to sixth as Jones pulled half a second on Pitt.
Jonesy then held the lead until five laps from the chequered flag when he ran into problem. Rea, meanwhile, worked his way back through the field until he went past team-mate Pitt and the move stuck, crossing the line two-onehundredths of second in front.
Jones said: "“I am gutted. I was enjoying the race and knew I had the pace to go for the win. I was focussed on keeping my lead and building a gap when I came out of a corner and immediately felt a loss of power. I had to pull across or the riders behind me would have hit me; and then I tried to keep going but it got worse and I was forced to retire.

“I am also gutted for the whole Parkalgar Honda team, everyone worked real hard to get me to the front and the result does not do the team justice. It’s a tough day but we’ll take the positives from this and it means we’ll just have to wait until Brands Hatch for the next chance and we all know it will be all the sweeter when we do top the podium."
Rea said: "I am really happy, to come to a new circuit and to win is a really good result. I wasn't expecting to win here and was putting all my expectations on Brands Hatch. We knew from yesterday morning's free practice that we had the pace to run up front and fight for a win.

"I want to thanks Andrew, we have worked hard together as a team to find a set of tyres that worked for both of us over a race distance. While all the others were going out on a one-lap mission, Andrew and me put a race set-up together.

"The championship is not all but lost for me now, I just need to start building some momentum with Brands Hatch and Donington coming up. Two tracks I know well and am really looking forward to.
 
"I want to thank my crew who have done such a good job this weekend. The bikes were pretty good and we had a good set-up. We are as strong as other bikes and can beat the other machines any weekend."