After a Kawasaki 1-2 in Race 1 on Saturday in Sepang, Jonathan Rea took his Ninja to another top 3 finish in Race 2 as the Northern Irish Championship leader beat rivals Chaz Davies and Tom Sykes to extend his gap at the top in difficult wet conditions.

With little time to find a wet setup on the newly re-surfaced track, Rea still led early on and was able to hold onto a good pace for most of the race, including fighting back from P4 in the later stages to reclaim third from Championship rival Chaz Davies. In doing so he extended his lead once again, as riders ahead of him on track lie further back in the standings after Round 6.

“It is so difficult in a weekend when you have all dry sessions,” said Rea. “A dry race one - and then two hours before race two a monsoon comes in! I am proud of my team because they were so reactive to the changing conditions. I feel we got it quite close and my bike was giving me quite a lot of feedback out there. The strategy in the wet was just to do the rhythm. It was important to keep the corner entry traction off the tyre, as normally that is the first area that suffers. So when I set off it was just about managing everything. Nicky was too far in front for me to want to really grit my teeth and go for him. I was happy with our performance and that was the maximum we could do. Maybe if I had the race again I could have gone with Nicky in the beginning but third was the result we got today and we achieved our target for the weekend. That was to increase our championship lead, so I am happy we did that.”

Both Rea and teammate Sykes now set sail for Donington Park in the UK for Round 7 of the 2016 season, a track on which Sykes especially is known for his pace.