Jonathan Rea played the best game of pre-race set-up and in-race tactics to win a brilliant WorldSBK race-one fight with eventual second placed rider Alvaro Bautista by just 0.090 seconds.

It looked like all three accepted top riders in 2022 - Rea, Bautista and World Champion Toprak Razgatliogluwould be the ones in contention, before the 18-lap race itself started.

Other than a bit of impressive catching up and hanging on from the other factory Ducati of Michael Ruben Rinaldi, for a while at least, the big three gapped the rest with ease.,Eventually it was just Rea v Bautista, just like 2019.

And again just like 2019, Rea came good at the end of the race, as he did at the end of that season.
It was certainly one of his best races, as he held off the plainly much faster Ducati with his nimble Kawasaki, even using the SCX rear tyre he usually cannot use in the mid-20°C track temperatures of Race One. The perfect race?
“Not perfect," Rea said. "For me, perfect is going and going. It was a nice race. An exciting one. I really enjoyed it - the battle. I think we really showed the strength of our bike in the battle that it was very agile, stable on the brakes. I could change direction.

"The work we did in the off-season with focusing on the softer tyres, the SCX family, 557, is really bearing fruit now because I was able to be very fast until the end with the soft tyre in a very cool temperature. Even before the race we were thinking, ‘we’ve done all this work but we’ve never, ever made this SCX work in 24 degrees.’ So, big credit to my team, Kawasaki, Showa. Really big win for us to do that. Not just to win the first round of the championship, but the way we did it and with the tyre. I’m really happy. Of course, we have two more opportunities tomorrow that we have to try to maximise. Really happy.”

Rea said the result of every winning race is the same, but he knew this one was a bit special. “I maybe enjoyed this one more than… I can’t remember the last race I enjoyed like this, so that’s important to keep good feeling, good motivation. Two years ago when Alvaro was with Ducati and arrived here, he finished 12 or 15 seconds in front of me. So, to win here with him on that bike is really good for me and my confidence to start the year with a good result.”

Rea got asked how frustration it must be to be passed on the straight so much by the pocket rocket Bautista on the Ducati missile. He laughed as he replied, “What can I say? It’s a rocket. The bike is ridiculously fast. But that doesn’t mean to say it’s the best bike. We could quite clearly see what I could do with my bike in the braking areas, the change of direction, also the mechanical traction I had. I think it was better than them.”

As well as being nimble, Rea was also asked about what appeared to be his bike’s good corner exit acceleration. He replied, “So, I can’t complain too much. Of course, it’s always easy to make free passes on the straight. But of course while it’s obviously a little bit more difficult for me on the straight, it’s more difficult for him in the corners. So, when I complain about that, it’s a definite area we need to focus. I’m sure if we had an engine and we have the chassis we have now and electronics, the bike would be incredible.”

The last corner fight on the last lap was the key moment, in a race where Rea just wanted to stay in contention all the way, and not let either Razgatlioglu or Bautista get away in front.
Rea said, “I don't know how many times he (Bautista) passed me on the straight. I had all these opportunities to understand what I would do in the last lap. I can’t tell you exactly what, but there was a common trend.”

When Bautista passed Rea on the final lap was also significant for the six-times champion. “Normally he was passing me at half the straight. This time he arrived right at the end. And I thought, ‘OK, perfect.’ But he tried to block me on the way in and cut back. I stopped the bike even more and I just went inside. Then I was worried I compromised my exit and he’s going to get me on the line, but I made myself as small as possible, tried to massage the rear shock up over the hill and got the job done.”

The whole race saw passes and re-passes, even from the start. More early action than Rea was expecting?

“A little bit, he agreed. “But because of the testing and yesterday, there was I think quite a lot of strategies out there. I think Toprak wanted to be in the front to manage the pace. Alvaro, I’m not sure what his strategy was. Mine was every time he came past, I wanted to attack straightaway because if I give him one or two sectors of clean air and then he got to the back straight and took another two tenths, then I have to stress the tyre even more in the first sector to arrive. So, as soon as he came past, I wanted to go. Lucky I had a bike today to do that.”

The opinion through almost the entyre paddock is that the Big Three of Rea, Razgatlioglu and Bautista will contest the championship, but Rea would not commit this early in the year.

“Today that’s how it is, but you never know. Guys like Gerloff, Alex, Rinaldi, Locatelli, they’re going to be there some races, but I think of course for the season Toprak and Alvaro are two of the main guys.”