Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea found himself in a brawl with his WorldSBK Championship rival Toprak Razgatlioglu in Saturday’s race at Portimao, so much so that he felt he had to get away to set his own pace, and fell in the attempt.

He grabbed too much brake on the approach to the final corner and fell at high speed, hurting but not fracturing his left elbow and bashing himself about well.

He said afterwards, when asked if it was too much risk or too much bad luck that caused the fall, “No, too much risk. I was really pushing hard. Getting a little bit frustrated with the battle, because Toprak arrives on the apex when he wants and no consideration about the other guy but that’s racing. Sometimes it happens. Of course, I just knew that if I wanted to stay out of that and make my rhythm I had to really put a hard rhythm. Of course, I went over the limit and crashed, and that’s that.”

Rea had to try to win at arguably his favourite circuit, but lost a whopping points score instead, finishing 45 points off his rival overnight. He is conceding nothing, however.

“But still a long time,” said Rea. “A lot of things can happen. Even with 45 points. We’ve seen the mistakes him and his team have made this year. Anything can happen. The points situation doesn’t affect the strategy. It’s more about just this race, this circumstance to win here.

“To make my rhythm, I needed a gap to go onto the start straight. I couldn’t put my rhythm because I kept getting dive-bombed at the apex of corners. So, frustrating couple laps that ultimately led to the crash.”

Rea was in pain and will be reviewed in the morning. He feels he is bashed, but should be okay for Sunday.

“Quite painful in my left elbow and my left leg, but apart from that, I feel okay. I don't know how I’m going to wake up in the morning, but generally okay.”

Rea’s crash was just trying too hard, so no front tyre change for day two on Sunday.
“No, my bike was working good. I felt really under control. Aside from losing on the straight I felt like I had it covered.”

Given his and Scott Redding’s comments about Toprak Razgatlioglu and his passing style, Rea was asked the question, are we over the limit now?

“I don't want to put shit on Toprak about how he rides, because he’s clearly doing a good job,” he answered. “He’s not in his limit. Sometimes he arrives on his limit, but the guy he is passing is also on their limit, with the bike, combination, everything. He’s there. I don't want to complain too much because I’m ready to fight like that.

“I’m going to fight like that, because I can shake his hand after that and not complain, but I’m happy to let the brakes off and use him as a berm. That’s what he did to me in T13, pretty much. He committed with the pass and I was on the apex. But I’m not going to grumble. It’s racing. Rubbing’s racing. I grew up motocross. He can train on his kart track in Turkey, but I grew up motocrossing and that’s also hard.

“Of course, there’s a line. These are big bikes. You can’t just come from miles away to make a pass because you feel brave in yourself that you can stop at the apex. I don't know if Scott was complaining a lot. I don't want to cry about it, because I get labelled a cry-baby, but I’m ready to roll my sleeves up, too.”