Reigning World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea doesn’t want to relax in the title fight just yet despite another double victory at Misano.
The Ulsterman’s terrific pair of victories nudged him ever closer to becoming the first back-to-back WSBK champion since Carl Fogarty in 1999.
However, Rea said that although he has a commanding lead in the championship race, he will continue to prepare as normal and he is seeking more race wins before the season is over.
“It’s my target achieved, so super happy because I just for many reasons I really wanted to win here and to make it a double is incredible,” he said. “I love racing here, it’s where I had my first win and now approaching past the mid-part of the season I said how important the next two races are before the summer break so to get two wins is really good.”
While race one saw him dominate from start to finish, Sunday’s affair was different as he had to stalk his team-mate Tom Sykes for much of the race.
With five laps remaining Rea made his move on Sykes, and after that quickly produced a gap to make it 50 points for the weekend in style, winning by almost three seconds.
The Kawasaki rider was quick to praise both his team and tyre manufacturer Pirelli as he felt both played an instrumental part in how he was able to pull the pin on his rival once passing him late on.
“Race two was a bit of a different race, yesterday I set off and made the pace but today we used a different tyre and that made the difference, the 377 tyre,” said Rea.
“I want to say a big thanks to Pirelli who brought the 375 tyre, the race one tyre for the first time this weekend and the 377, which we won race two on was the same tyre we used at Donington.
“It’s working in cool conditions and here in the hotter conditions so big credit to them and also to my crew because after race one we changed the bike quite a lot.
“We were able to conserve our tyre a little bit better and then as far as the race was concerned I was quite happy for Tom to lead.
“I just shadowed him every lap, understanding that he was weak in some sections, especially in Turn One, so that’s where I made my move and put my head down and we were able to win with a gap.
“I’m super happy because I hadn’t won a lights-to-flag race until yesterday so I was happy to do that but more important to be clever and to earn my 25 points in a different way today.”