Jonathan Rea was only able to achieve one sixth place finish in today’s two fourth round World Superbike championship races at Monza in Italy, both of which were won by Irishman, Eugene Laverty.

Despite starting on the front row of the grid, Rea could not get away with the leading group in the first 18-lap race at the 5.777km Monza circuit. However, the 24-year-old Ulsterman fought his way past Australia’s Troy Corser in the final laps and was closing on fifth placed Michel Fabrizio at the flag.

In race two, Rea was the victim of a first corner crash for the second year running as he was hit on the right hand side in the middle of the first part of Monza’s Prima Variante. Despite remounting and making his way back to the pits, his Castrol Honda crew were unable to repair his CBR1000RR in time for him to rejoin the race.

Rea’s Castrol Honda team-mate, Ruben Xaus, could not find an improvement to his set up for today’s two races and cited lack of grip and brake issues as his main problems.

The Castrol Honda team now heads to its nominated test track at Miller Motorsports Park in the USA for a two-day test ahead of round five of the WSBK series which takes place on Monday 30 May.

Jonathan Rea – 6th and DNF

Frustrating really is the word, especially in race one when we just didn’t have the speed on the straight. I could match the lap times when I was on my own and able to run the right lines. But as soon as I got involved in a race with anyone who slowed me down in the places I was fast, I got forced off the line and lost the speed. Sixth was OK but certainly not what I’d hoped for. I’ll have to see the footage of race two to find out what really happened, but I feel like I got clipped from the inside which forced me up and into the guy on the outside. We’re going to Miller next, which has another long straight, so I hope the guys back at base can find something. Luckily, we’re testing there the week before the race so I hope that gives us at least a chance to do better than last year.


Ruben Xaus – 15th and 12th

It has not been a very positive weekend at Monza which is a pity for all the guys in my team who have been working very hard. I have had some braking problems this weekend and stopping the bike has been hard. Today we also had some grip problems on the corner exits, which then makes it difficult to carry the speed down the Monza straights. We will approach the test and races at Miller in a positive way and see what more we can learn from the experience of this weekend.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager

Of course we all feel very sorry for Jonathan because we could see he did not have the speed in the bike today that is required at Monza. Everyone in the team felt his frustration in race one and to have his second race ended at the first corner – just like last year – did not improve things at all. Thankfully, he is completely uninjured and will be fit enough to test some new parts that we have to try at Miller. It was not a good weekend for us there last season, so the test is very important for us. It will also be an opportunity for Ruben to get some more time on the bike outside a race weekend because his results here at Monza are clearly not where we want to be.