World Superbikes: Jonathan Rea laments 'silly mistake' in race two at Donington
- Published
Rea finds himself trailing by two points in the 2021 championship after four rounds and 12 races
Jonathan Rea has admitted he made "a silly mistake" which led to his crash in the second feature World Superbike race of the weekend at Donington.
The six-time champion came off at Coppice midway through Sunday's race as he led from Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Rea re-mounted to finish the race in 20th position but his failure to score any points allowed the Turkish rider to assume the series lead by two points.
"We just have to maximise every opportunity now," said Rea.
The Kawasaki rider went into the UK round with a 20-point advantage over his Yamaha rival but Razgatlioglu made it back-to-back wins by taking a dramatic victory from the fifth row of the grid in Saturday's 23-lap opener.
Rea's lead after the previous round at Misano had been an even more healthy 35 points.
Rea was a comfortable winner of Sunday's Superpole event, before Razgatlioglu secured another race triumph in Race Two after the Northern Irishman's demise.
It was the first time the 34-year-old had failed to pick up a point in 34 World Superbike races.
Toprak Razgatlioglu took his season tally of victories to three with two wins at Donington
'Frustrated but feeling more positive'
"It was a bitter sweet day really. The Superpole race in mixed conditions was really stressful on the grid," explained Rea.
"We saw some guys used a wet tyre but the clear choice was the intermediate - or even the slick, to be honest if I had to do the race again.
"I built a nice lead and was able to maintain that 2.5 second gap to the end.
"In Race Two we changed the bike quite a lot from Saturday because I was struggling quite a lot with grip and the bike was not turning as well.
"We fixed that in morning warm-up and when Toprak came through and I ran wide into the chicane I gained the time I had lost to him quite quickly.
"I just kept my powder dry, then he made a mistake at Coppice and I passed him. I just put my head down because I had the rhythm, the bike set-up and the feeling.
"But, going into Coppice I got caught out wide on the bumps a little bit, the front unloaded and when I tipped it in I lost the front.
"I am frustrated with myself but I am feeling a lot more positive than I did on Saturday because I felt I did not have the tools to fight then. On Sunday I felt it was my race but I made a silly mistake."
Rea has won five races in total this season, including doubles in the Aragon curtain-raiser and at Estoril the following week.
Razgatlioglu has only failed to make the podium once in his last nine races.
The fifth round of the championship will take place at Assen on the weekend of 24-25 July.