Jonathan Rea (5th/Yamaha): “Podium is real” / World Superbike Championship

Jonathan Rea already has 17 wins at Assen The six-time Superbike World Champion has not achieved so much at any other race. This year is a burden for the Northern Irishman, because after switching brands to Yamaha he has scored only eight points in the championship and is yet to find the perfect R1 setup. The weather on Friday did not help in making any significant progress.

“The conditions were not good for starting the bike. We never had a completely dry track. In the second session it was a little better at the beginning, but with a very strong wind,” Rea said in an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com. “At every race I have the feeling that I know the Yamaha R1 again, but here in Assen I had a positive feeling from the first lap. However, there are also areas that we need to work on. It was easy for me to set fast lap times. However, the improvements were difficult due to the changing conditions.

There was a window in the second training session when the sun was shining and the conditions were getting better and better.

“But it rained again and we changed the rain lot. Luckily there was enough time and we were able to go out on the track again to test in the rain. “You never know what the weather gods have in store for Assen,” reported Rea. “Basically My pace seems fine. We just have to deal with the Superpole. The third practice session is too early for that, but if we learned anything in Barcelona, ​​it was how important the Superpole is this year. So I hope I can put it together a good qualifying round to be part of that race.”

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Dominique Aegerter

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Sam Lowes

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Alvaro Bautista

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Remy Gardner

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Andrea Iannone

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Michael Ruben Rinaldi

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Alex Lowes

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Michael van der Mark

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Scott Redding

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Iker Lecuona

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Ray and Öttl

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Toprak Razgatlioglu

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Nicolò Bulega

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Garrett Gerloff

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Jonathan Rea

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Dominique Aegerter

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Nicolò Bulega

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Remy Gardner

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Michael van der Mark

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Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes

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5th place, 0.449 seconds back, gives Rea confidence. For the first time this year, the 120-time winner sees a chance for a better result.

“I think we can take a good step with our setup. The key to success will be the weather and tire choice. “But today we only used one set of wet tires and one set of tires, so we couldn’t test many tires,” explained the youngster. aged 37. “I still think the platform is a real goal – although it is for other drivers as well.”