Jonathan Rea has revealed that he suffered bike problems in the first race in Portimao which led to him falling. to 15.
After Friday’s practice sessions, Jonathan Rea was in high spirits as he finally felt the power on his Yamaha R1. The Northern Irishman carried his good feelings into Saturday as he qualified eighth.
The first race of the weekend started well for Rea as he climbed towards the back of the leading group. In the early stages of the race, he was running sixth. However, the six-time world champion began to drop down the order and ended up in fifteenth place.
After the race, Rea told WorldSBK.com that he had a technical problem. Rea had problems with his quickshift transmission, which slowed him down and prevented him from getting the result he deserved.
“Unfortunately, after lap seven, we had a problem with the quickshift, so I couldn’t change up or down with the electronics. I had to go back to manual, which is not ideal when upshifting but when downshifting it’s really difficult,” said Rea. “The lap times dropped, but I didn’t want to give up, I wanted to finish the race. But from lap seven to lap 20, it was pointless to think about the bike.”
Despite this problem, Rea remained in good spirits. The six-time champion found a good feeling with his R1 during the early stages of the race. This new confidence in his bike gave him great confidence for the Superpole and the second race.
“If you think about the first seven laps, it was probably the strongest bike I’ve ridden this season,” Rea continued. “I felt really good, I didn’t have a great start, but I had a good corner and was able to overtake some riders, and I felt like I could catch up with the group in front of me. I definitely feel like we got around the corner.”
