Factory Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea found it impossible to beat team-mate Tom Sykes in the second World Superbike at Buriram after team-mate Tom Sykes defended his lead so well from half-distance that Rea found it difficult to make a pass stick in Thailand.
The reigning champion did his level best to pass the Huddersfield man but Sykes answered everything Rea threw at him even though his pace was slower than the Castletown resident from around lap seven onwards.
“I’m happy to leave here with 45 points. The competition this year is so strong and the pace in both races was so fast. We made some small improvements for race two, I had a bike I could fight with and more traction. I enjoyed the first part of the race but on lap six or seven, Tom really dropped his pace,” said Rea, speaking at the track.
“I wasn’t sure what he was doing but I was quite happy just to sit there but when I tried to make some moves, then his strategy completely changed. It was more about blocking me than going away. I did everything I could but when he is riding on point and defending so well, it was impossible to take the race win today.
“I had a couple of plans in place, one was to get the holeshot and go away because we had a good pace from lap ten but the was a bit slow. I let Tom manage the race and he did a good job, and then I started thinking about places to pass but it was impossible. Tom did an incredible job and it gives me motiviation to come out swinging at Aragon.”
