01/03/09 - Top ten for Rea in Australia
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Two top ten finishes for Jonathan Rea were the only consolation from a day of frustration for the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team in the opening round of the 2009 World Superbike championship at Phillip Island in Australia.
In the two 22-lap races around the 4.445km circuit, the first won by Noriyuki Haga and the second by Ben Spies, Rea and his two team-mates, Carlos Checa and Ryuichi Kiyonari, struggled to find rear grip for their Honda CBR1000RR machines.
Jonathan Rea – 5th and 9th
I managed to get the holeshot in race one and led for three laps, but I was very conscious about preserving the rear tyre to tried to ride as gently as I could. In race two, the pace was just that much quicker and I probably wasn’t aggressive enough in the early part. After I dropped back, I was just eating the rear trying to keep with the others and a couple of mistakes meant I had to ride even harder.
Carlos Checa – 12th and 13th
It’s been a very frustrating day and the problem that I thought would give me the most problems, my shoulder, was not a problem after all. I had a bad start in race one and struggled to get back to the leaders without using my tyre. In race two, the start was better but there was no side grip from the start and I just couldn’t do anything about it.
Ryuichi Kiyonari – DNF and 23rd
There’s not very much I can say. I race one, I got T-boned by Ruben Xaus at the Honda turn and that was the end of my race. In the second, I just had no grip from the start, went into the gravel early on and could not do anything. I’m very disappointed because the simulations we did in practice were very promising for the races.
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
There’s no point in trying to disguise the fact that we’ve had a very disappointing day. The race simulations we did suggested that our race set-up was very strong so I have to admit that we’re also a little surprised by these results. The only positive was Johnny’s result in race one but, for sure, we have a lot of work to do in order to perform better in Qatar.
Results – 2009 World Superbike championship, round one, Phillip Island, Australia
Race 1:
1 Noriyuki Haga (JPN) Ducati
2 Max Neukirchner (GER) Suzuki
3 Yukio Kagayama (JPN) Suzuki
5 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda
12 Carlos Checa (ESP) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda
Race 2:
1 Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha
2 Noriyuki Haga (JPN) Ducati
3 Leon Haslam (GBR) Honda
9 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda
13 Carlos Checa (ESP) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda
23 Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) Ten Kate Honda Racing
Championship points after one of 14 rounds:
Haga 45, Neukirchner 30, Haslam 25, Spies, 25, Kagayama 24, Rea 18, Checa 7