Jonathan Rea - Photo Credit: Honda World Superbike Team
Jonathan Rea admitted his victory at Donington Park was taking a little while to sink in after he make a stunning late charge to take the win at the final corner of race two. The Briton fell away from the leading group with a mistake eight laps from the finish but forced his way past the BMWs at McLean's on the last lap to claim maximum points.
Rea had already taken fourth in race one and paid tribute to his Honda crew for giving him the equipment to challenge at the front.
“It's nice to win and, in that second race, everybody wanted to win so bad. It was a crazy race and I made it hard work because I dropped off the group again in the middle stage and then, when I caught the group, I made a big mistake and ran wide at the last corner. To catch up with five laps to go and make up some places and then cap it off with the win was unbelievable. I was quite happy with the fourth in race one as well – the guys gave me a great bike and Chris [Pike – crew chief] and his team were on it all weekend. It's nice to come here and get a good result because it's never happened in the past with Superbike. I got on the podium in Supersport but this is nice for the British fans and there were quite a lot of guys out there. On the slowing-down lap everyone was clapping and it's nice to have a British winner at a British round.”
Despite having ridden at Donington before, teammate Hiroshi Aoyama couldn't improve on his poor early season form, finishing seventeenth and tenth in the two races, and the Japanese rider didn't feel he found the set-up he was looking for until it was too late.
“It was a race track that I know and I was expecting a little bit more result. The first day we started in a good way but on the second day we could not improve in qualifying so we were 17th and missed Superpole. This was a little bit disappointing but for the race we tried to improve the set-up. Somehow, in the first race, we went in the wrong direction, so I was fighting but could not make it. In the second race, we went to the opposite set-up and it seems like this was positive and I could fight for tenth position. Also, as a team, Johnny won the race, so it was not so bad a weekend. Of course I want to be better but I have never ridden at Miller so I have to learn the racetrack but I am thinking positive.”
