Motul SBK: Another Classic Assen win from Kawasaki’s Rea

KRT rider Jonathan Rea scored yet another famous race win at the Assen TT Circuit to take his 99th Kawasaki WorldSBK win and the 114th victory of his career. A stroke of misfortune beyond anyone’s control dropped Alex Lowes from a podium contender to a non-finisher at half race distance.

His 16th Assen race victory was one of Rea’s very best, as he held his racing line and his nerve in the final corners to beat Alvaro Bautista by just 0.103 seconds.

In the Superpole contest earlier on Saturday morning a strong showing from both KRT riders saw Lowes finish second and Rea third, putting them both on the front row for the opening 21-lap race.

Jonathan Rea : “The race was a difficult one because with Toprak in the front I felt much faster. When I went to the front I felt like I did not want to destroy my tyre, so I just conserved my pace. He wasn’t coming back at me again so I thought, ‘just keep the rhythm.’ Then I saw Alvaro come through and he was really close. I had not much in reserve but I knew in the last three laps I could maximise the bike and really push on. It was giving me really good feedback. There were just a couple of weak areas where I needed to be careful, defend a little bit and make no mistakes. In the stronger areas I was able to put in some power and take another Assen win.”

Alex Lowes : “Today was a positive day but unfortunately we ended up with no points. Sometimes it can be frustrating because you have to learn that when some things are out of your control, you should not get annoyed. If I look at my performance, and the performance of my team, the guys and the bike we had, we did a good job. In Superpole qualifying I was really happy, we were under the lap record, but unfortunately Toprak was another chunk faster than us. In the race I was hanging in there pretty well, with a bit better pace than I expected. So I was happy with that but unfortunately in the incident with Locatelli his bike just flicked a stone up and it went through the oil-cooler. So, we had to retire. It wasn’t my fault or the team’s fault, it was just a little bit of bad luck. But this is racing and tomorrow we have another two races to try and do a bit better.”

Thank you for visiting insideracing.com.ph. While you are here, kindly don’t forget to click on our advertiser ads above, visit their site and consider them for your motorcycling needs. It will help us a lot.

You can also order a copy of our monthly print magazine for more riding contents to read and enjoy at your leisure anytime by clicking here.

You may also express your thought below through the comment section. You may also follow us on Facebook, on Instagram @Insideracingnation or subscribe to our YouTube channel.