Jonathan Rea is “OK” after his WorldSBK crash at Phillip Island on Sunday, which brought out a red flag in Race 2.
Rea crashed at turn 11 and was carried away from the gravel trap on a stretcher. Remy Gardner hit the downed #65 Yamaha and picked up a front puncture, which demoted him to the back of the field before the red flag was thrown, which meant he had to take the restart from the back of the grid.
After the crash, Rea explained how he was “feeling quite good” in the moments before the crash. He said: “First and foremost, physically I’m ok, I hit my hip quite hard in the crash but no further injuries from Tuesday. They were two big crashes this week but I’m still in one piece thanks to Alpinestars and Arai.
“I’m really frustrated because the crash came as a big surprise, it was as I was building my confidence on the bike and feeling quite good. I took some “track profit” when Toprak had engine troubles and found myself in a good place in the race, but as soon as I started to feel really confident I crashed.
“We just have to rebuild from zero, look into everything and try to improve the feeling for me. You can see with how competitive Loka is that we can get there – I want to go home now to regroup, reset and come back stronger in Barcelona.”
The 2024 Australian Round was Rea’s debut with Yamaha in WorldSBK, and saw the six-time champion struggle to find a solution to a persistent rear chatter issue. Rea’s discomfort with the bike saw him struggle for speed throughout the weekend, qualifying down in 12th, and finishing the first race in 17th after his lack of speed was compounded by a slow pit stop that cost him more than 20 seconds. A 10th place in the Superpole Race and the Race 2 DNF means the #65 is still without championship points in blue.
Find all the latest motorcycle news on Visordown.
