“I´m happy to leave here with 45 points,” said Rea after a Race 2 that saw some incredible action from the top 3 riders of the Northern Irishman, Tom Sykes and Chaz Davies. “We made some small adjustments for Race 2 and I had a bike that I could fight much more easily with. Much more traction.”

The Kawasaki Racing Team rider took victory in Race 1 with an equally small margin as his teammate in Race 2. “I enjoyed the early part of the race, but then Tom dropped his pace. I wasn’t sure what he was doing but I was happy just to stay there but when I tried to make some moves then his strategy completely changed. He seemed to be more about blocking me instead of trying to go away.”

Sykes took the victory in the end by less than two-tenths of a second, the first time since Donington in 2015 that he has beaten Rea to a win. “I did everything I could but when he’s riding on point and also defending so well, it was impossible to take the Race win today.”

Rea has another chance to take back his teammate at MotorLand Aragon, where last year he took one victory in Race 1 and then saw Ducati’s Chaz Davies beat him over the line by 0.051 in Race 2.