Jonathan Rea admits ‘fundamentally, I still don't understand the bike' following a mixed weekend in Misano
The Northern Ireland rider has been unable to show the form that fired him to a record six world titles and 119 victories since he left Kawasaki to join the factory Yamaha team in 2024.
Rea finished a disappointing 13th in his maiden season on the R1 machine last year and has struggled to challenge for the top six this season after making his comeback from injury.
The 38-year-old missed the first three rounds after breaking bones in his left foot in a crash during testing at Phillip Island in Australia in February.
On Sunday, Rea sealed his best result of the year with seventh in the Superpole race at Misano in Italy after crossing the line in 12th in Saturday's opener at round six.
However, he crashed out of ninth in the final race to end the weekend on a disappointing note and is now pinning his hopes on a big weekend at the next round at Donington Park from July 11-13, where he earned his sole podium result in 2024 with third in the Superpole race.
'We can grind out results but I think fundamentally, I still don't understand the bike too much, especially when we have to go for Superpole,' said Rea yesterday.
'Superpole has been my nemesis since I've rode the bike really and I'm struggling with that.
'When you can't put yourself in a good position straight away, the class is so tough now – the front two guys (Toprak Razgatlioglu and Nicolo Bulega) are incredible and are almost a race within a race – that next group is incredibly competitive.
'So, if you can't start near the front of that, you make life tough. But Donington next is a good opportunity for us, we were quite strong there last year and I got my only podium in the Superpole race.
'If we can put everything together, try to do all our work on Friday, there's no reason why we can't have a successful weekend there.'
Analysing his crash, Rea said he lost the front in what had been a 'strange' tumble.
'Going into T1, like usual the rear was bouncing around and when it picked up and landed I literally lost the front straightaway – nowhere near the apex – so a strange one,' he said.
'So frustrating, because the trajectory of the weekend had been a really positive one, from missing FP1 to finishing seventh in the Superpole race, and it was unfortunate to end on a tough note.'
Turkey's Toprak Razgatlioglu completed a clean sweep for a treble on the ROKiT BMW, slashing championship leader Nicolo Bulega's gap to nine points.
Bulega held an advantage of 31 points coming into the weekend but was dealt a blow when he was taken out by Axel Bassani at the first corner on the opening lap of the Superpole race.
Razgatlioglu underscored his dominance at Misano as he wrapped up victory in Race 2 yesterday by over nine seconds from Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati) in what has become a two-horse fight for the title.
'I'm very happy, last year I had three wins here and this year I did it again, now I'm looking forward to Donington,' said reigning champion Razgatlioglu, who will make the move to MotoGP in 2026 with the Pramac Yamaha team.
'This is my last season, but if I was continuing in this paddock, I think we could set many records here, maybe in the future. It makes winning this season feel that much better.'
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