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Imola WSBK: ‘I rode my ass off’ - Rea

Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea could not hide his disappointment after crashing out of the opening World Superbike race at Imola, but he made up for his misfortune after finishing on the podium for the second time in three races this afternoon, in second behind Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes.

The Northern Irishman could not find the pace to match Sykes, but insists after sorting out issues with his bike, the team can leave the Italian circuit with ‘their heads held high’.

Rea got the perfect start to race one, taking the holeshot before running wide at the second chicane of the track. He rejoined the race in eleventh place and had battled his way up to challenge for third before crashing out unhurt at Rivazza 2, with two laps remaining.

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The Isle of Man resident put his mistake in race one behind him and was pleased that his team have over come problems with the bike, especially with the tyres.

“Really mixed emotions today. We had really good pace all weekend, but not enough for Tom today, who seemed like he had something in reserve, especially when it got hot this afternoon. I pulled a big ‘holey’ in race one and thought I’m gone here, but I had a big vibration the whole race on the brake disc, so I couldn’t push the front like I wanted,” said Rea.

“I made a mistake on the first lap, but made a lot of ground up and then unfortunately crashed when I was pushing for the podium with a couple of laps to go. In race two I just rode my ass off and made zero mistakes. In the first five laps I couldn’t go with the two guys ahead, so they gapped me and by half distance, Tom had eked out a lead tenth by tenth.

“I need to work with my crew to make the bike better with a full fuel load and fresh tyres. But it’s clear that we’ve addressed some of the problems we’ve had when the tyres drop. We can leave Imola with our heads held high because we’ve addressed some of the issues we had earlier in the season and we look forward now to Moscow.”

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