Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathan Rea has played down the fact that his World Supersport tile chances were wrecked when Robbin Harms nerfed him off at Magny Cours to day, calling the crash a "racing incident".

Stiggy Honda’s Harms tried an audacious move on the brakes with 13 laps of the race to go, clipped the rear of Rea’s CBR600 which caused Rea to go down, along with Yamaha’s Broc Parkes, before Harms himself slid off.

Rea picked himself up and, despite some confusion after he first ran to pick up Parkes’ bike, the Irishman managed to haul himself back through the field to finish in tenth.

The incident put paid to any chance he had of winning the Supersport title and he must now scrap it out with Josh Brookes for second. Brookes, who is Harms’ team-mate, got third in today’s race.

"I felt I could have run at whatever pace I wanted today," said Rea. "I just found it difficult to pass Andrew down the straights and I doubt I would have broken away.

"I’ll put what happened down as a racing incident, and I’m not one to bear a grudge – it’s just a shame I won’t be able to battle for the title in Portugal. But congratulations to Andrew, who’s been on it all season. He’s a worthy champion and I’m really happy for him and the whole team."
Harms apologised, saying: "I missed my braking point. I thought I could save it, but instead I ran into Rea in front of me. I’m really sorry that it happened. It was not my intention at all, it was just an honest mistake."