After claiming pole position in the Tissot Superpole session for the first MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship visit to the Circuito de Navarra, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) finished second in Race 1 behind title rival Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) for the Pirelli Navarra Round.

Rea initially fell back off the line at the start of the race behind Redding after the Ducati rider got an “amazing” start to lead into Turn 1. Rea was able to respond in the early stages of the 23-lap battle, but Redding fought back to take the lead on Lap 6 with a move into the very fast right-hander of Turn 6.

Rea ran in second for the rest of the race, directly ahead of another title rival in Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK), but had to make a save at Turn 9 in the middle part of the race before running wide at the same corner a few laps later, although Rea did not lose any positions with either moment to Razgatlioglu; Rea finishing in second place 2.5 seconds down on Redding.

After the race, Rea revealed some potential setup changes for his Kawasaki ZX-10RR machine as well as discussing tyre choice, after he opted for an SC1 development solution while Redding used the standard solution of the same compound. Rea said: “I think they used the SC1 front tyre, with my bike I don’t like that tyre. We really need to stop a lot of inertia in the bike, really pushing the bike into the corner. I need a stable front. As soon as that temperature comes up, the front starts moving and that’s not so good for us. I think from a chassis point of view, we can change the headpipe position to give me some more stability. As far as the tyre goes, I think we made the right choice.”

Rea was able to extend his Championship lead over Razgatlioglu to seven points after Race 1, but Redding cut his gap to Rea from 50 points to 45 points as the season enters the second half of the campaign with the top three sharing the podium for the sixth time in 2021. Rea will be hoping his planned setup changes can take him one step further up the order to extend his lead over both Redding and Razgatlioglu.

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