The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship visited the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve for the 2022 Pirelli Portuguese Round and it is a venue where Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) has enjoyed so much success at in the past. Rea was unable to add his win tally across the Portuguese Round as he took a hat-trick of third-place finishes, leaving him in third place in the Championship standings with three rounds to go this season.

Rea was able to take pole position at Portimao, his fifth of the season, but could not convert that into wins in either Race 1 or the Tissot Superpole Race, finishing behind Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) and Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) in both races. Razgatlioglu took victory with Bautista second on both occasions, limiting the losses in the Championship standings to Bautista for Rea but losing ground on the reigning Champion in second place. In Race 2, Rea was able to fight at the front during the opening stages of the race, but dropped down to third behind Bautista and Razgatlioglu, with the Ducati rider taking his first win of the weekend.

Reacting to his weekend, and Race 2, Rea said: “For sure, a little bit disappointed with the results. I really came here wanting to try and get back and get a race win under my belt. No regrets. I did my best. I got everything out of my ZX-10RR. My team worked incredibly well. Race 2, I enjoyed a lot because I was riding on the limit. I got to the front, tried to relax and conserve some tyre a little bit. But when Alvaro came past, his pace was really fast and, barring the fight with Toprak when I could just maintain that gap, when he had clear space he was gone. Some areas to really improve when the grip level just drops with our bike. No regrets. Thanks to the team. Congratulations to Toprak and Alvaro, that was a really, really fast rhythm. When I look back at previous years racing here at Portimao, the pace it took to win a race, right now it’s phenomenal. Riding in the 1’40s and low 1’41s all race distance is really testament to how much WorldSBK has stepped up. Good to be part of that battle, a shame I wasn’t a little bit closer.”

The results of the Portuguese Round leave Rea third in the Championship standings, 26 points ahead of Razgatlioglu ahead of him while he is 82 points behind Bautista with three rounds and 12 races remaining. With 62 points available per WorldSBK round, and 2022 proving that anything can happen in WorldSBK, Rea is still in contention and he revealed his plan to ensure he remains in title contention for as long as possible.

He said: “Forget about the big picture and focus race by race. Work with my team. What’s going to be will be. Alvaro and Ducati are a really formidable package right now and they’ve been doing a really good job, hence the gap in the Championship. Also, Toprak as well. Both their packages work differently. So, I have to focus on myself. I can only influence my result, do the best we can, and, in the end, we’ll see what happens after Phillip Island.”

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