IN
THE
WIND
P36
weekend was one of Rea's clas-
sics. Having been told by his
team to ride differently from his
normal fashion and having been
told "no" to bike changes, he
wanted to improve front stability
into corners, so he just braked
earlier and leaned off more, and
hey, presto, he won the race to
his own near amazement.
"Honestly, this pace, I was
so surprised," said Rea. "I did
not expect that pace today, that
rhythm. I knew I could be fast
and the Superpole race gave me
a lot of confidence."
He almost gave Davies an-
other real opportunity but after
some jousting for a time, Rea
motored on away to win the
finale by over a second.
In winning his 94th and 95th
WorldSBK races all in, Rea took
his personal Kawasaki victory
count to 80.
As Rea was keen to remind
everyone, his bike is one of the
oldest on the grid in its overall
design.
From dropping significant
points in race one to Redding,
after his self-described "crucial"
error to let Redding get away,
and allow Davies to close in to
pass him, Rea more than made
up for it on Sunday, and he
leaves Aragon 1 with a 10-point
advantage.
The breath of fresh air that is
the straight-talking Redding in
WorldSBK 2020 style had his
own epic race-winning moment
on Saturday. He started waiting,
passing and then winning, while
first under pressure from Rea
and then Davies, who was the
fastest man for most of the race.
The two current real would–
be-champions are just Rea and
Redding. Toprak Razgatlioglu
(Pata Yamaha) is the next near-
est after the two leaders, but he
is now 65 points from Rea, 55
from Redding, after a weekend
where finishes of 6-7-8 proved to
be the best.
Such is the interest in the
championship battle up front,
and such is the changing story-
line of the points leaders that it
has taken this long to start dis-
cussing the remarkable podium
placing of one Alvaro Bautista
and the all new Honda Fire-
blade—the CBR1000RR-R SP.
Bautista and his teammate
Haslam were far from happy
early in this weekend, on a
track they have tested at before
Andrea Locatelli (55) is
making everyone else
race for second place in
WorldSSP. He hasn't lost
a race all season.
