Rea: "I could not have had a better weekend"
A win and a second place in Australia for the Ulsterman.
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) took his first WorldSBK race win for Kawasaki at the first attempt in a close first 22-lap contest at Phillip Island. He then followed it up with second place to take joint championship lead.
In hot conditions the new era of World Superbike competition got underway with Tissot-Superpole winner Rea scoring the win by leading for all but one of the 22-laps, and finally taking the race victory by 0.039 seconds from Leon Haslam. In race two he was unlucky not to make it a double win after another fantastic fight to the flag, but he was beaten by an impossibly small 0.010 seconds across the line by Leon Haslam.
The overall championship points sees leaders Haslam and Rea tied on 45, with a win and a second place apiece, while Sykes is sixth overall, on 23 points.
Jonathan Rea: “I could not have had a better weekend. The team were not so optimistic about winning races or being on the podium here with the pace of some other bikes but together with Pere, Paolo, Javier, all the guys from Showa, all my mechanics, we worked really hard and never lost sight of our goal, which was not be strong for 22-laps each time. Leon just had more pace today in each race, so race one fell in my hands a little, but I am so happy to be getting out of here with 45 points and starting the season strongly. I did not expect these results at all. We were not the most optimistic so to be just pipped by a small margin in race two, and by my old team-mate Leon, I am happy for him. We did the maximum we could and came away with the maximum points we could have had. I am happy and excited to move on from here with 45 points.”
