Jonathan Rea worryingly admits: “My career strength? I can’t do it with the Yamaha”

Jonathan Rea admitted that he can’t perform his “career strength” of exploiting fresh tyres on the Yamaha.

Rea finished ninth in Sunday’s Superpole then sixth in Race 2 in the World Superbikes round at Most, Czech Republic.

He sighed afterwards that he is struggling to deliver the major attribute that he possessed throughout his title-winning Kawasaki heyday.

“It’s been my career strength putting fresh tyres on a bike and exploiting everything,” Rea said.

“But with the Yamaha I just can’t do that now. We are working hard.

“The bike has a great feeling but it tends to come when the tyres have their initial drop.

“At the beginning it’s so hard for me to exploit the strengths. Remy Gardner and Andrea Locatelli can do it, but I’m not there yet.

“Why? Maybe the commitment and lean angle. I am more conservative. With this bike, it doesn’t seem to work.

“If we can qualify better and I can exploit the fresh Pirelli tyre, we should be there or thereabouts…”

Jonathan Rea assesses Race 2 at Most

Rea finished 10th in Saturday’s Race 1, and said after the Most round ended: “The trajectory of the weekend was positive. Qualifying P15 to go 10, 9, 6 is somewhat positive.

“It highlighted the importance of qualifying. Track position was everything.

“My pace was better than the guys around me. The group in front of me was achievable.

“But trying to get through traffic was really difficult. I made a good start in the last race after giving myself half a chance from the third row.

“Something came over the top of me, on T2. I came out and the RPMs were so, so low. I was in first gear but I thought I must’ve been in second, or third.

“I got done by the guys who carried speed. Someone came over the top and killed all my drive.

“Again, that was track position. Anything positive I did until Turn 1 was ruined.

Never give up. Once I settled, I disposed of the Hondas quickly. Rinaldi was the next target, I kept my head down then caught him.

“We had a bit of tyre left. I could see others were dropping but they were too far ahead.

“I didn’t make my life or my team’s easy by crashing in Superpole.”

Rea described his race on Sunday: “Once I got through the Hondas, I thought ‘don’t give up’.

“In clean air the Yamaha can make the lap time. At one point, I was one of the fastest on track.

“It goes to show that there are clear areas we need to work on.

“I knew if I put the bike in clean air, and ride my lines, I could catch him. But then where could I pass? It wasn’t aggressive, it was a block pass. I learned that from racing Toprak - he would always level me, whereas I would go through on people. I levelled guys today, it seemed to work.

“I learned a bit more about the Yamaha in traffic and how to exploit its strengths.”