Jonathan Rea finished third in the general standings and obtains third place in the Superpole, his 18th podium of the year.
The Jerez event marked a double farewell, both to the 2023 season and to the participation of the Northern Irish rider Jonathan Rea, six-time WorldSBK world champion, with the Kawasaki Racing Team.
With the championship already decided in favor of Álvaro Bautista and second place for the Turkish Toprak Razgatlioglu, it only remained for Rea to confirm third position in the general standings. As he achieved on Saturday with the fourth place achieved in the first race at the Jerez race track.
While his teammate Alex Lowes, who started from the front row, remained in the top five until lap 17, but lost two positions in the final laps, suffering from confidence problems in the front axle due to wear of the tires.
On Sunday the Superpole race was held over eight laps after the red flag due to a broken engine. After a chaotic restart, Alex Lowes crashed when he was overtaken by Razgatlioglu without enough space, causing his front tire to touch the Turkish rider’s rear. As a result of this accident, Lowes suffered facial injuries that prevented him from participating in the last race, finishing 11th in the general standings.
Rea remained in the fight for the podium throughout the race and finally took third place in the Superpole by withstanding the pressure from Toprak Razgatlioglu, thus achieving his 18th podium of the season.
Despite giving everything in the last race with an incredible initial pace, Rea saw his chances of achieving his last victory with the KRT cut short when he fell on lap five, although showing great determination as we are accustomed to, he managed to rejoin the race to finish 17th.
STATEMENTS:
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team rider): “I wanted to finish the right way. But we didn't go down without a fight. The right handlebar was leaning too far forward, I had about 15mm of right footrest left, so I just wanted to finish the race. When I saw my second or third time after the crash, I was doing 1'41, which was faster than the first race on Saturday. So I kept going, thinking maybe I could score a point. I have some strange feelings in general today. Not from a performance or results point of view, it's just strange because I'm leaving an incredible team.”
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team Rider): “It's a real shame to end the season this way... I was lucky because the impact was big and I have some stitches around my eyes and a lot of swelling on my face. Thank you to the entire team, it has been a difficult year but you have always given 100% for us every day, and I really appreciate it. Personally, many thanks to them. It is sad to see Jonathan have his last races in green today, but I have great respect for him and I wish him all the best for the future.”
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