Jonathan Rea - Monza 2012
Jonathan Rea finished in sixth place in today’s second World Superbike championship race at Monza in Italy. The race, red-flagged after eight of a re-scheduled 16 laps, was won by British rider, Tom Sykes, while Rea’s Honda World Superbike team-mate, Hiroshi Aoyama, was eleventh.
Race one had been stopped earlier in the day due to wet weather, and it was subsequently cancelled for safety reasons, due primarily to concerns over the durability of rain tyres. Rea had opted for a hard slick tyre in the initially dry conditions and was comfortably placed when the red flags came out.
Race two was declared dry as it looked like it might start in dry conditions, but after a delayed start, the riders were asked to complete two warm-up laps on the still damp Monza track. During these warm-up laps, light rain was falling at the back of the circuit, but the race finally got underway after another short delay.
When rain began to fall once again at half race distance, the race was stopped and half-points awarded.
Jonathan Rea
“It’s been a manic, crazy weekend. As they say here: it’s a big casino! The weather has played havoc and it’s been a little bit like the Assen story with wet and dry. The problem here is that we’re doing 330kph down the straight and the centre is just falling out of the wet weather tyre. So it’s completely unsafe to ride in the wet conditions and that’s why they cancelled race one. Race two was declared dry but the Parabolica was completely wet and even in the race we had to be very careful at the beginning. But I’m happy with sixth here – the bike’s working really well and I’m really happy with the set-up. It’s just that down the straights here at Monza we didn’t have the speed to challenge the Aprilias and BMWs. Anyway, the team’s been working hard on a good set-up so we’re looking forward to going to Donington.”
Hiroshi Aoyama
“It was a very weird weekend and we had a lot of changing conditions. In the first race there was too much rain and we decide to stop and I think it was quite a good decision. The second race, as well, there were quite strange conditions but we eventually had to go with slick tyres. Finally we started the race and I missed the start a little bit and missed turn one also. But from that I started to re-focus for the race and I could catch up and get to eleventh which is not too bad. The positive thing is that I could feel a little bit more on the bike so this something positive for next weekend in Donington and I’m looking forward to going there now.”
Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator
“It’s been maybe the craziest weekend I’ve seen in Superbikes which ended up in the cancellation of the first race. We finally got going in the second race and Jonathan was settling in nicely in sixth, staying comfortably with the other guys and then the race was stopped. He was quite happy with his bike and the set-up so that’s something quite positive to take to Donington next week. Also with Hiroshi, eleventh was quite positive – he overtook some people and made some improvements on the settings. What else is there to say? Let’s just go to Donington!”
