IN
THE
WIND
P32
Portugal WorldSBK: Rea Back On Top
J
onathan Rea returned to form
in round three of the 2020
WorldSBK Championship in Por-
timao, Portugal, August 8-9. The
Kawasaki Racing Team rider was
back to his old self after winning
all three races (including the Tis-
sot Superpole), but we shouldn't
be too surprised, after all, he is
the reigning five-time champ and
a 12-time race winner at this facil-
ity. The three wins also shot him
to the top of the championship
leaderboard, leapfrogging the im-
pressive 24-point advantage that
Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider Scott
Redding had after the previous
race at Jerez, just a scant few
days ago.
In Portugal, in hot but not
hideously punishing conditions
experienced in Spain, Rea and
his squad were at their very best
by race time.
He used his race starts to best
effect, but with three wins and
three fastest laps in each race,
he had pace that even Redding
and the strong Ducati challenge
again could not quite live with.
"That was a perfect weekend,"
said Rea. "The fastest laps, pole
position and three race wins.
I do not think it was the result,
but it was the way that we made
the result this weekend. I could
really enjoy the bike. It is strange,
because sometimes fighting for
a sixth place, like we did in Jerez
last time, feels like I was riding
100 percent, giving everything
to finish sixth. This weekend, I
could do whatever I wanted and
kept increasing the gap at the
front. It is an incredible feeling
as a rider. I did not start well on
Friday in FP1, but we were able
to just work calmly together and
understand the bike."
It was a strong start to the
weekend's real racing for Rea,
with a race-one win from Toprak
Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha) that
extended to over five seconds.
Not even the ebullient and
ambitious Razgatlioglu could get
near him, but there was another
podium for Michael van der Mark
(Pata Yamaha), on a weekend
when the relatively reduced heat
Jonathan Rea was
back to his old self
in Portugal, where
he won all three
points-paying races
and is back in the
championship
points lead. PHOTOS:
GOLD & GOOSE
