WSBK: Rea ‘optimistic’ as he comes to Davies’ territory

Reigning triple World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea comes to Aragon with a slender two-point advantage over Phillip Island double-victor, Marco Melandri. The Ulsterman will be looking to take his third and fourth win at the venue, despite just having one win to his name so far in 2018.

“Aragon is a great circuit and one that I really enjoy riding at, although at this time of the year the conditions are generally quite cool. Last season was interesting riding against the Ducatis, to see how the bikes had strengths in different areas,” began Rea, who is at the head of what is a very tightly packed top 8 riders.

“This season, we will have to understand how our bike behaves and how competitive we can be – but I am optimistic. Step-by-step I’m starting to feel better with the bike and understand what is required to be fast this season. It’s important to be strong at Motorland, and with Assen coming right after, it could be the most important phase of the championship. Being back in Europe everything is more familiar and ‘normal’, so I am excited to see what this weekend brings.”

Rea has taken Kawasaki to a podium in every race they have been partnered together. However, he has only two podiums from four races this season, whereas title rival Chaz Davies has three from four and he is arriving at a track he has won at four times from six attempts with Ducati, plus completing a double for the GoldBet BMW team in 2013.