main content of page
Racing News |
Kawasaki Racing Team Rider Jonathan Rea Secures Two Podiums In Italy
Kawasaki Racing Team rider Jonathan Rea secured a podium finish in the opening race of the Imola WorldSBK weekend after 19-laps of intense action in extremely hot conditions. Alex Lowes placed ninth after some tough luck in Superpole qualifying. In Superpole Rea was eventually seventh and Lowes 11th, with Alex losing his best lap after exceeding track limits on his fastest lap. Rea thus started the opening race of the Imola weekend from the third row of the grid and Lowes from row four.
When the flag dropped at the start of the 19-lap race at 2pm, the air temperature was a punishing 95°F. The track temperature of 136°F made life even more complicated for the riders as they balanced tire choices against the reduced grip available over full race distance. From the start Rea was fifth on Lap One, and would take third position by lap five. He remained in that position across the start finish line for each subsequent lap, despite being able to close in on eventual race winner Alvaro Bautista and second place rider Toprak Razgatlioglu at one stage. This was Jonathan’s seventh podium finish of the season.
Lowes ended lap one holding the same 11th position he had started from, pushing forward to ninth on lap nine. He closed in to Loris Baz in eighth place and was only 0.355 seconds behind him at the flag.
Kawasaki Puccetti Racing Tito Rabat just missed out on a championship point by finishing in 16th position, having qualified 21st. Independent riders Oliver König of Orelac Racing Movisio Kawasaki and Isaac Vinales of TPR by Vinales Racing Kawasaki had to retire during the opening race of the weekend.
Rea stood on the podium in Italy for a second time after taking third place in Race Two at Imola, in a contest that was shortened by four laps because of extreme temperatures affecting the local area. Alex Lowes (KRT) had a Sunday best result of seventh in the morning’s Superpole Race. Rea came within 0.2 seconds of his second Imola podium (following on from his third place success in Race One on Saturday) but he could not quite get past early race leader Andrea Locatelli at the end. Jonathan was fourth across the line, scoring strong championship points from a third row starting spot.
Lowes finished seventh in the Superpole race, having started 11th on the grid and launching from the fourth row.
After advice from the championship’s medical authorities and consultation with the riders, WorldSBK Race Two was reduced to 15 laps, rather than the planned 19. The heatwave that had affected the whole weekend intensified again on Sunday, with official air temperatures reaching 98.6°F.
Rea would take his chance to fight for the podium again in the final Imola race and eventually placed third, just losing the required pace to sustain a challenge to Axel Bassani for second in the final laps. Rea’s latest podium finish saw him narrow the gap to third place to just seven points, after seven of the 12 championship rounds have now been completed. Seventh place in the earlier Superpole race saw Lowes starting one row closer to pole position for Race Two. He was unlucky to fall in the second and slightly longer Sunday race at Imola, especially after running in fifth place with a high degree of confidence after some set-up changes were made to his machine.
In the overall championship Rea is fourth and Lowes eighth.
The next round of the series will take place at the Autodrom Most, in the Czech Republic, between July 28-39 After that there will be a long summer break, with action restarting in France at Magny Cours between September 8-10.
