KRT’s Jonathan Rea was second in Race One at Navarra after taking a record-equalling seventh pole in succession. He now joins Ben Spies on that score.

In the real race it looked like he could even motor away from eventual winner Scott Redding early on but then Redding got going to an unmatchable pace, and Rea survived two off-track excursion, losing too much time to harbour any ideas of making up ground on Redding at the end.

His seventh Superpole in succession record was pleasing but he soon changed the subject away to the race itself.

“What a lap in Superpole!”, he said, after setting the new track best on his second Q tyre. “I really got the best of the tyre. It was overcooking a few corners, missing apexes. So I was really surprised at the lap time, to be honest. So, it was nice. 

"We changed some different things about my starts. I was a little bit nervous, it was very important to be at the front. I did quite a good start, Scott was just a little bit better. He led the way into T1. From there I felt like I could go to the front quite easy. He was quite wide in five and six. I went on the inside. I don't know if they (Ducati) go back to first in that corner or they stay in second, but I went back to first, took the line and from there just kept my rhythm. 

“He blasted me on the straight. I could feel that coming - a sitting duck. Thought, right, okay. Do what I can. Then I thought, ‘I’m there!’”

But a questionable front tyre choice and other issues arrived for Rea, and mistakes crept in. “Then the front tyre started to heat up, stability started to go down,” said Rea. 

“Just over-pushing the front. I had a few front slides, and that was enough to tell me ‘brake a bit earlier’. When I was having them moments I lost the track position as much as one-second. He went away, but I felt like he wasn’t destroying us lap by lap when it was constant. The gap was quite similar. 

“I feel that we can make some changes with the front tomorrow to make a step forward. Just take a little bit of pressure with that front tyre when I release the brake. Now when I release the brake it’s just not stable. I’m getting pushed from behind. The rear is a combination of the engine braking opening and closing. It’s just unloading the front. In this temperature you don’t need too much to upset it when you’re riding on the limit. 

“It’s a track that I don’t feel really suits us or the bike, but we could be quite competitive today so I’m quite happy with the result. I think tomorrow we can definitely make an improvement.”

A recent test at Barcelona, after the Most round, helped Rea a little, especially to try new settings. But it was too late for the very different conditions at the previous round.

“We made some steps forward in the test in Barcelona,” explained Rea, after a test in hot conditions like those in Race One at Navarra. “I felt good there. Also, Most is a unique track. We had no data. Ducati had been there testing on road bikes at least for some corner speed data. We had no team data from anybody. So, we went in there completely blind. I felt like we were always catching up from the start and learning the track. 

“It’s very bumpy (here). We know in the bumps our bike is not super amazing. These aren’t like chatter bumps. These are like motocross bumps. Going down into T5, literally is like, if you get off line, it’s mad!”

It looks great on the TV cameras in the slow-mos, as was mentioned to him, but as Rea shot back, “It is amazing, but it is not amazing, at 150mph, I’ll tell you that!”

He explained some more, “Normally in the left corner you get off the bike, but I’m that scared,” said Rea, “I’m old-school going into the corner (he says, miming pushing the bike down and into the corner). “Sometimes I’m like, I hope the camera is not watching me because I look like a dick!”

Rea’s second place was a loss of five points to Redding, who is now 45 behind Rea, but the main focus for Rea and his team was Toprak Razgatlioglu - who from the third row of the grid was third, having taken a long time getting through the traffic after a second lap mistake of his own.

Rea grew his championship lead to seven points over Razgatlioglu, which right now is what matters most.