Rea back in the ballpark at team's home round
Rea then followed the win up with a precious third place in race 2, results that hauled him up into fourth place in the championship standings, 53 points down on leader Checa. The 24 year-old will now be aiming to continue his positive form at Monza and make up ground on current second-placed man, Max Biaggi, just ten points ahead.
"First and foremost, I'm really proud to give the famous Castrol Honda name the first victory on its comeback to this championship. We spent all weekend developing the bike for the races, and that strategy paid off. I got a good start but couldn't decide whether to let Max past and let him dictate the pace. In the end I made the right decision to stay in front and take the win. We had to dig deep in race two because I got held up for a while and the front guys got away. I was matching their lap times but we ran into some tyre problems later in the race. I'm really happy with the weekend though, and really grateful to everyone who has helped to get me here - it's been a long hard winter coming back from injury. The team has worked really well and that's exactly the right sort of confidence and momentum that we need to take to the next races. I'm happy to be back where I belong, in the winners' circle, and I look forward to trying to get more wins for the team. "
