Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea came away from the World Superbike race weekend with two sixth place finishes at Sepang, but engine braking proved problematic for the Northern Irishman.
In race one, Rea was innocently caught in a first lap crash and was forced off the circuit at turn three before rejoining in last place. The 27-year-old quickly set about taking advantage of the absence of series leader Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes and scored ten valuable championship points at the flag.
Race two was interrupted by oil on the track and restarted over ten laps, with Rea starting from seventh place. He matched the pace of riders in front of him but was not able to improve on his first race result, now the rider is feeling slightly frustrated as he feels he should have got more out of his bike than he did today.
“It's been a very tough weekend and it's not where we want to be. But we kind of made some steps forward when it mattered, especially in race two when I was able to carry a much better pace than I have all weekend in the heat,” said Rea.
“But it seems our engine braking system is too sensitive to different conditions and different circuits, which is frustrating because when I had grip at the beginning I had no problem entering the corners but at the end of the race I had a lot of chatter from the rear when the grip went down.
“But I really enjoyed riding this track, even though we didn't get the full potential out of the CBR this weekend. I look forward to the next race at Misano because it's a circuit that I love.”
