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Castrol Honda>> Rea defies pain for fourth place at Phillip Island

March 01 2011

Castrol Honda rider Jonathan Rea battled to fourth position in today’s second race of the opening round of the 2011 World Superbike championship at Phillip Island in Australia. His team-mate Ruben Xaus took a top ten finish in the same race as Spaniard Carlos Checa won both outings.

After three heavy crashes during testing and qualifying at Phillip Island, Rea started today’s two 22-lappers at Phillip Island from the third row of the grid. A good start in the first outing saw the 24-year-old fighting for a potential podium position before he overshot turn four on lap 14, eventually taking 12th place.
 
Rea was unable to repeat his first race start in the second outing, finishing lap one in 11th place. He passed several riders, including fellow Briton Leon Haslam on the final lap, however, to take a hard-earned fourth at the flag.
 
Xaus endured a tough opening race, with handling and clutch issues restricting the Spaniard to 16th place. However, a major chassis change for race two enabled Xaus to match the lap times of leading riders and, barring a mistake on lap one, he might have finished higher than his eventual tenth place.
 
Jonathan Rea – 12th and 4th
I’m absolutely drained but I guess pretty satisfied after everything we’ve been through over the last few days. I’m annoyed that I out-braked myself in race one but I had no power in my hands. I passed Nori (Haga) in race two but he came back on a big surge to the leading group and I couldn’t go with him. I didn’t have much strength but I knew I could be fitter than anyone at the end of the race to keep the lap times. The bike was working really well and I could stay in the 33s until I caught Fabrizio and Haslam, when I took a bit of a breather just to catch my breath and look at them. I could’ve passed Leon in a few places I think, but I’ve been doing most of my passing around turns seven and eight and decided to save all my energy to pass him there on the last lap. If you’d told me when I was lying in hospital on Wednesday that I’d come away from here sixth in the championship, I’d have laughed at you. Big t hanks to the team, who got a physio here to help me between sessions and races to help me relax, and the bike, which never missed a beat this weekend. We still need to find a little bit of speed on the straights because I struggled passing people into turn one, but overall I’m satisfied with what we got from here.

Ruben Xaus – 16th and 10th
The first race was a disaster so we had to find something for race two and we did. I missed my braking point at turn four on the first lap and lost five places and then got caught with a slower group. I worked hard to get the places back but used up the tyres’ performance too much in the first laps. With a few laps to go they were finished but I think I could have finished higher. No complaints though – I didn’t expect this position after race one, after which we changed the bike completely. We’ve had some problems on the bike this weekend but I think we’re speaking the same language now. In the end it’s been good: we finished both races with no bad consequences and learned a lot, so I’m going to Donington with a big smile on my face.
 
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
Thank goodness we finished at Phillip Island on a higher note than we experienced before. We’ve had some bad luck here but race two was pretty good. Jonathan got a bad start but chipped away and did really well to finish fourth considering the state he is still in. Ruben was riding really well too, and got his first top ten finish with the team and really had a ‘clicking’ moment there with the machine. We all knew it would be a matter of time for him and it’s good that it’s happened at the first round. We’ll head back to Europe feeling positive and let Jonathan get fully fit again. We’ll check all the data for Ruben and look for another step forward for him. After everything though, without these positive points, it would have been a very, very long flight home!
 
2011 World Superbike championship, round one – Phillip Island, Australia
Results, race one:
1 Carlos Checa (ESP) Ducati 34m16.503s
2 Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia +4.365s
3 Leon Haslam (GBR) BMW +10.719s
4 Eugene Laverty (IRL)Yamaha +11.266s
5 Marco Melandri (ITA) Yamaha +11.293s
6 Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Suzuki +12.039s
12 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Castrol Honda +31.059s
16 Ruben Xaus (ESP) Castrol Honda +41.928s

Race two:
1 Carlos Checa (ESP) Ducati 34m15.041s
2 Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia +1.188s
3 Marco Melandri (ITA) Yamaha +1.406s
4 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Castrol Honda +10.563s
5 Leon Haslam (GBR) BMW +10.885s
6 Leon Camier (GBR) Aprilia +16.914s
10 Ruben Xaus (ESP) Castrol Honda +19.053s
 
Championship points after one of 13 rounds:
1 Checa 50, 2 Biaggi 40, 3 Melandri 27, 4 Haslam 27, 5 Fabrizio 18, 6 Rea 17, 7 Noriyuki Haga 16, 8 Tom Sykes  15, 10 Jakub Smrz 14, 13 Xaus 6
 
Next round:
Donington Park, United Kingdom – 25-27 March

© 2011 Castrol Honda World Superbike Team

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