Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathan Rea just missed a podium finish by taking fourth place in race two at today’s fifth round World Superbike championship event at Monza in Italy.
Starting from sixth place on the grid, Rea was fortunate to avoid the first corner melée in the first 18-lap outing which led to an hour’s delay in the schedule. In the restart, won by Italian Michel Fabrizio, Rea dropped to 11th before fighting back through the field to take fifth.
The Northern Ireland rider went one better in the second outing at the legendary 5.8km Monza circuit, as Ben Spies took his fifth win of the campaign. Rea put in his fastest lap in the second half of the race, vindicating the recent changes made to his CBR1000RR by his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda crew.
Rea’s team-mate, Carlos Checa, finished in ninth and tenth places in the two outings after starting from ninth place on the grid.
Jonathan Rea – 5th and 4th
We just had a few problems with the bike in the latter stages of the race – I don’t know whether it’s the light fuel load or what, but it developed a bit of chatter which was quite hard to dial out after race one. I got busted by a pretty hard move by Laconi in that race and, by the time I’d got back past him, I’d lost touch with the leading group. In Race 2 I got a much better start and tried really hard to catch Fabrizio and Kiyo, but they had a little more left in the tank at the end. Still, I’ve equalled my best Superbike result and we’ve shown that we can race at the front now. I didn’t quite achieve a podium today but hopefully the results are some reward for all the hard work the team has put in over the last few weeks.
Carlos Checa – 9th and 10th
Both races were pretty much the same for me – I had quite bad chatter on the entry into corners and a lack of side grip on the exit, but the entry problem was worse. It was a little better in race two and I was able to stay with the leading riders a little longer. But then I started to lose a few tenths here and there, and then I got tangled with a few other riders and made some mistakes. We will check the settings of the other guys in the team and see where we can improve things in time for next weekend in Kyalami.
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
Those were two solid results for Jonathan which are a reward for and credit to all the hard work that the crew has put in to find a new development of the bike since we left Valencia. We will have to look at Carlos’s particular issues but we are definitely moving forward and aim to take the next step in South Africa.
2009 World Superbike championship, round five – Monza, Italy
5.793km, 18 laps – results, race one:
1 Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Ducati 31’50.758s
2 Noriyuki Haga (JPN) Ducati +0.239s
3 Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) Ten Kate Honda Racing +8.175s
4 Yukio Kagayama (JPN) Suzuki +11.001s
5 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +12.447s
9 Carlos Checa (ESP) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +26.930s
Race two:
1 Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 31’41.252s
2 Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Ducati +2.665s
3 Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) Ten Kate Honda Racing +2.810s
4 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +7.706s
5 Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia +7.863s
10 Carlos Checa (ESP) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +22.261s
Championship points after five of 14 rounds:
Haga 200, Spies 146, Fabizio 125, Leon Haslam (GBR) Honda 103, Tom Sykes (GBR) Yamaha 90, Biaggi 81, Rea 77, Kiyonari 65, Checa 53
July 6th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
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