Rea doubles up as  Lowes finishes strongly in Estoril WorldSBK

Jonathan Rea took both WorldSBK race wins on the final day of action at the Estoril WorldSBK round, with his team-mate Alex Lowes finishing sixth in the short Superpole race and then fourth in Race Two.

Jonathan Rea:
“They are never easy but race two was fun, to be honest. I had a proper moment with Rinaldi in T4 and could have been down and then Laverty came through with good pace. I thought I was in trouble because the majority of the grid had the SCX tyre, and I opted for the SC0. I really believed in it, to be honest. But after those three or four laps I wasn’t convinced. But, once I got a bit of clear track I could see that Toprak and Chaz were not going away, and I just tried to keep the gap. Then all of a sudden Toprak got a long lap penalty and that is like a free pass for track position. He is hard to pass. Scott was in a really solid rhythm but I was catching him in sectors two, three and four, but I was struggling a little bit in sector one. Step-by-step I got there. I was pretty happy to be able to stay there in the slipstream. I could feel Scott trying to pass in Turn Four and then I saw on my pitboard that he was out. Unfortunate for him but it gave me a bit of breathing space and let me concentrate on my race. Staying in the mid-1’37 lap times was pretty tough out there today because the track temperature was super-high. Kudos to Pirelli because obviously the SC0 tyre is working in quite a wide range, and also kudos to my crew because they made amazing decisions all weekend. To have one podium and two wins means it has been an incredible weekend.”

Alex Lowes:
“We made a good recovery today but the Superpole race was hard. Starting from tenth on the grid, and the first corner here being so small, it is difficult to make up a lot of places. Starting from the fourth row was tough, but I got on the back of the lead group, plus Michael Ruben Rinaldi. I felt a little bit faster than him but I could not pass him anywhere on the track. I got a second row start for the second race and that was also tough. In the hotter conditions I did not manage the SCO as well as Jonathan did. The last part of the race, when Razgatlioglu passed me again, I thought I am not fast enough to stay with him today. I wanted to be smart and get some points. I was in a decent position so it was a pretty good two Sunday races, a lot of information and a lot better than we managed here last year.”

Source Kawasaki Racing Team

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