Simon and Rea come together at turn one - Photo Credit: Gresini Racing
Gino Rea saw his race ended through no fault of his own for the second Grand Prix in succession after being caught up in a first corner collision in Catalunya. The Briton was tagged by Julian Simon and was particularly annoyed to lose track time on the new Suter chassis.
“Another frustrating Grand Prix, unfortunately. Two weeks ago a French rider took me out in France and this week it was a Spanish rider in Spain. It is hard to take because I made a great start and was fighting for a position in the top ten but then I got hit hard from behind. I don’t know why he hit me but there was no chance for me to save it. It is very frustrating because we need track time and now we go into the next race with a big job to do in terms of setting the bike up. It’s my home race next so I know the circuit well and hopefully we can get better luck there.”
Teammate Ratthapark Wilairot made it to the finish unscathed but couldn't do better than seventeenth. The Thai rider put the result down to excessive tyre wear but was encouraged by the pace he'd shown early on.
“The start was not so bad and the bike felt quite good. I was able to follow Bradley Smith’s group and set a 1’47 which was a pace I felt I could keep up. Unfortunately we either chose the wrong tyre or didn’t quite have the set-up right because after nine laps the bike was moving around too much and I lost places. It is disappointing but we have some positives to take to the next race.”
Team Manager Fausto Gresini is becoming increasingly frustrated by Rea's bad luck but is confident the tide will turn soon. He did take positives though from Wilairot's display.
“This is happening too much and we need to talk about why. Gino is struggling to get on the pace in practice and then unfortunately his chances in the race are being spoiled by crashes. We’ll have a look at things and hopefully at Silverstone he can turn things around.”
“It is a shame because he (Wilairot) was close to the points today and missed out but we have to take the positives. We clearly need to work on the balance of the bike because it used the tyres too quickly today but we are on the right lines in terms of the work we are doing and I am sure we will break into that top fifteen soon.”
