After finishing second behind Ducati's Scott Redding in Saturday's Jerez opener, Rea won the Superpole race on Sunday morning to take pole for the second feature-length encounter.
But the five-time WSBK champion struggled badly as he lost the lead at the start of the second lap and faded all the way to sixth, 12.5s behind Redding.
Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Pata Yamaha
Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Rea heads to this weekend's third round of the season at Portimao 24 points adrift of new championship leader Redding, but remains optimistic that other circuits will offer him good opportunities to close the gap to the ex-MotoGP rider.
"Typically Jerez has not been the strongest circuit for us, so I take away more positives than negatives this weekend," said Rea.
"It’s going to be a tough season, Scott looks like he’ll be strong at every circuit, but there are some circuits he hasn’t been to before, like Magny-Cours and Portimao, so we shall see."
Lowes struggles in heat
Rea's Kawasaki teammate Alex Lowes had come into the Jerez weekend leading the points after a strong opening round at Phillip Island back in late February, before the season was placed on hold amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
But the 29-year-old suffered a tough weekend in Spain, labouring to a ninth-place finish on Saturday before finishing seventh and fifth respectively in the two Sunday races.
"It's not been an easy weekend, but in the end it wasn’t bad," said Lowes. "It was quite difficult for me because it was the first time to ride the Kawasaki in these extreme temperatures.
"[On Saturday] I didn’t understand anything and I had no confidence but with every race I have improved, and it was not too bad [on Sunday]. It looks like compared to some of our rivals we lack a little bit of speed, so we have to try and improve for next week [at Portimao]."
Lowes has slipped to third in the riders' standings, two points behind teammate Rea.
Alex Lowes, Kawasaki Racing Team
Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
August 03, 2020 at 05:36PM
https://sports.yahoo.com/rea-try-forget-worst-ever-103637433.html
Rea will "try to forget" after worst-ever Kawasaki finish - Yahoo Sports
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