Jonathan Rea shone all of his five championship highlights on the track on Sunday at Aragon to win not only his fourth straight Superpole sprint race of 2020, but take a race two win in a very unexpected fashion.

Rea held off even seven-times Motorland race winner Chaz Davies despite offering him up a chance after running wide at one stage. His first Sunday victory was his own 94th race win, the second his 95th. But his race two success was also his 80th with Kawasaki. How long will it take for Rea to get the ton up overall?

His day started strongly with a full pace attack in the ten lap sprint race, in which he is now four-from-four in wins.

“In the Superpole race I made an OK start but then Baz came on the inside, so I got a little bit flustered,” Rea told bikesportnews.com. “I knew I had to keep the rhythm really fast in the beginning because it was a good opportunity. Using the softer SCX tyre for the sprint race has a lot of potential but we did not do so many laps on it in practice, and the conditions were not as hot.”

The second race was a simply surprise for Rea to be able to win. “When I made a mistake and he (Chaz Davies) came past I knew I could attack him again. I wanted to attack him back straight away and set my own rhythm. I knew I could push and put my head down again.”

It looked like mostly Rea just riding with his inimitable mix of pace and calm but must-win attitude that made the difference. It really seemed to be a Rea special in the final ‘long’ race, although he also worked on some aspects of his technique under advisement from his team and others. More of that later.

Rea also used a softer tyre today; “I was one of the only guys in the race to use it. I expected this tyre to work a little better in the cooler conditions. When the temperatures are cooler you do not need so much grip from the tyre. But when the temperatures are hotter you need to choose a tyre that has more grip. The idea today was to have the soft tyre for the grip.”

Rea was actually surprised at how race two turned out, given how he was ‘only’ third in Saturday’s race one and beaten by both factory Ducatis, not just Redding. “Honestly, this pace, I was so surprised. I did not expect that pace today, that rhythm. I knew I could be fast and the Superpole race gave me a lot of confidence.

Yesterday Scott being in front disturbed the rhythm, slowed the rhythm a little bit compared to what I had, then I got sucked into that rhythm. It was harder to respond, but today when I could really get stuck into the 1’50 laps, and keep that load going at the beginning of the race, it was easier to manage when the tyre would drop.

“I learned from race one yesterday. I was requesting a bike to give me more stability on the brakes, but they said no, because we would compromise turning. They said ‘please, just in the second part of the race, brake three, four, five metres earlier and don’t compromise your exit.’ Everybody is dropping, the offset of the lap time is there, but when I am trying to keep going then the lap time is not coming.”