Jonathan Rea finished in sixth place in today’s second World Superbike championship race at Monza in Italy. The race, red-flagged after eight of a re-scheduled 16 laps, was won by British rider, Tom Sykes, while Rea’s Honda World Superbike team-mate, Hiroshi Aoyama, was eleventh.

Race one had been stopped earlier in the day due to wet weather, and it was subsequently cancelled for safety reasons, due primarily to concerns over the durability of rain tyres. Rea had opted for a hard slick tyre in the initially dry conditions and was comfortably placed when the red flags came out.

Race two was declared dry as it looked like it might start in dry conditions, but after a delayed start, the riders were asked to complete two warm-up laps on the still damp Monza track. During these warm-up laps, light rain was falling at the back of the circuit, but the race finally got underway after another short delay.

When rain began to fall once again at half race distance, the race was stopped and half-points awarded.

Jonathan Rea – 6th

It’s been a manic, crazy weekend. As they say here: it’s a big casino! The weather has played havoc and it’s been a little bit like the Assen story with wet and dry. The problem here is that we’re doing 330kph down the straight and the centre is just falling out of the wet weather tyre. So it’s completely unsafe to ride in the wet conditions and that’s why they cancelled race one. Race two was declared dry but the Parabolica was completely wet and even in the race we had to be very careful at the beginning. But I’m happy with sixth here – the bike’s working really well and I’m really happy with the set-up. It’s just that down the straights here at Monza we didn’t have the speed to challenge the Aprilias and BMWs. Anyway, the team’s been working hard on a good set-up so we’re looking forward to going to Donington.

Hiroshi Aoyama – 11th

It was a very weird weekend and we had a lot of changing conditions. In the first race there was too much rain and we decide to stop and I think it was quite a good decision. The second race, as well, there were quite strange conditions but we eventually had to go with slick tyres. Finally we started the race and I missed the start a little bit and missed turn one also. But from that I started to re-focus for the race and I could catch up and get to eleventh which is not too bad. The positive thing is that I could feel a little bit more on the bike so this something positive for next weekend in Donington and I’m looking forward to going there now.


Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

It’s been maybe the craziest weekend I’ve seen in Superbikes which ended up in the cancellation of the first race. We finally got going in the second race and Jonathan was settling in nicely in sixth, staying comfortably with the other guys and then the race was stopped. He was quite happy with his bike and the set-up so that’s something quite positive to take to Donington next week. Also with Hiroshi, eleventh was quite positive – he overtook some people and made some improvements on the settings. What else is there to say? Let’s just go to Donington!

Next round: Donington Park, UK – 11-13 May



Fastest lap : Lap 7 - 1m44.707s (198.623Km/h) Tom Sykes, Kawasaki
Circuit record lap : 1m42.937s (202.038Km/h) Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha, 2010)
Circuit Best Lap : 1m41.745s (204,405km/h) Max Biaggi (Aprilia, 2011)


Event results - Round 4 - Race 2

1 Tom Sykes 14m08.800s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Leon Haslam 9.709 GBR BMW BMW Motorrad Motosport
3 Eugene Laverty 10.119 IR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
4 Marco Melandri 10.294 ITA BMW BMW Motorrad Motosport
5 Max Biaggi 10.527 ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
6 Jonathan Rea 10.638 GBR HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
7 Carlos Checa 10.899 SPA DUCATI Althea Racing
8 Davide Giugliano 12.195 ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
9 Jakub Smrz 13.199 CZE DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
10 Ayrton Badovini 19.372 ITA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia GOLDBET
11 Hiroshi Aoyama 24.551 JPN HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
12 Chaz Davies 24.655 GBR APRILIA ParkinGO MTC Racing
13 Maxime Berger 24.662 ITA DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
14 Lorenzo Zanetti 24.668 ITA DUCATI PATA Racing Team
15 Leon Camier 24.810 GBR SUZUKI Crescent Fixi Suzuki
16 Leandro Mercado 24.935 ARG KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
17 Niccolo Canepa 25.278 ITA DUCATI Red Devils Roma
18 Michel Fabrizio DNF ITA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia GOLDBET
19 Sylvain Guintoli DNF FRA DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
20 Sergio Gadea DNF ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
21 Mark Aitchison DNF AUS BMW Grillini Progrea Superbike Team