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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

16 Outubro 2021

Rea Takes Strong Race One Podium

Jonathan Rea and his KRT team-mate Alex Lowes ran visually striking special bodywork in the opening WorldSBK race of the San Juan Villicum weekend with Rea finishing second and Lowes an impressive fourth in his comeback race from injury.

Celebrating the 125th birthday of Kawasaki as a company in an unmissable colourful style Jonathan Rea was to earn a second place finish in Race One at the Argentinean round after 21 intense laps of the 4.276km long circuit.

Running an equally iconic but very different Kawasaki graphics package on his Ninja ZX-10RR compared to Rea’s, Lowes made a very strong comeback to full race action with his battling fourth place. He had not finished a race in WorldSBK since Race One at Jerez because of the effects of an earlier hand injury.

In the Tissot-Superpole qualifying session on Saturday morning Rea was fifth and Lowes fourth, meaning both KRT riders lined up on the second row of the grid.

Rea made a very strong start and eased into second place, a position he would occupy for all 21-laps as his championship rival Toprak Razgatlioglu took the race win.

A very busy but ultimately rewarding race for Lowes saw him in third place, then be passed by first one rider and then another. In a late rally he moved back into a final fourth place ahead of Axel Bassani and scored valuable championship points.

After a positive first race day at this flyaway round for both Jonathan and Alex the track action concludes with a ten-lap Tissot-Superpole Race will take place at noon on Sunday 17 October. Race Two will get underway, again over 21-laps, at 15.00 local time in Argentina.

Jonathan Rea, stated: “The good news for us is that we made the SCX super-soft tyre work for all the race. It was quite consistent, my rhythm was strong and it caused me no problems in the front. That bodes well for Sunday. We will try to make a few extra steps and we can try to get a little bit closer. We need some small tweaks. The special livery is nice - I am loving the get-up! I wish I could use it for the rest of the season because they are quite cool colours, with the green and the blue. I think we will revert back to our old faithful tomorrow and try to enjoy the two races here and get another bag of points.”

Alex Lowes, stated: “Villicum is a tough track, lots of changes of direction, and not being 100% fit I knew I would have to really dig deep to be smooth. Luckily the track position helped me because I was behind Bassani for a lot of the race and that made it go a little bit faster. In racing you have to look at your situation and fourth today for me was a really good result. I will try to do better tomorrow but in this special livery for Kawasaki it was nice to have a good solid ride.”

Tito Rabat (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) made a great step forward since he rode a Kawasaki for the first time finishing 11th in Race One at Villicum.

Isaac Vinales (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) was very unlucky to fall out of contention and no-score after showing some real flashes of pace in qualifying.

Marco Solorza (TPR Outdo Kawasaki) finished his first ever WorldSBK Race in 18th place, with Luciano Ribodino (TPR Outdo Kawasaki) 19th.

Note To Editors:
”Some 125 Years ago Kawasaki embarked on an adventure. Since then, Kawasaki has been improving people’s lives worldwide delivering exciting products and engineering masterpieces that bring joy and create a sense of wonder.

Now Kawasaki Motors Ltd – a new company concentrating even more on motorcycles - has been launched: This new company focuses on traditional Kawasaki River Mark logo as a worldwide symbol of quality together with the tagline "Let the Good Times Roll".

Why? Because the ultimate mission is to deliver the greatest range of Powersports products on the planet. Street motorcycle, off-road two and four wheeler or JetSki personal watercraft, Kawasaki has a single minded passion –  to be the best.

To celebrate the launch of Kawasaki Motors Ltd and the worldwide use of the River Mark logo, Jonathan Rea, Alex Lowes and the whole Kawasaki Racing Team have created replicas of two iconic models that represents this unique Kawasaki Heritage.

Past, Present and Future – come celebrate and enjoy with us!"

2021 KRT Rider WorldSBK Statistics

Jonathan Rea: World Champion 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020

2021: Races 33, Wins 11, Podiums 26, Superpoles 8
Career Race Wins: 110 (95 for Kawasaki)
Career Podiums: 211 (169 for Kawasaki)
Career Poles: 35 (31 for Kawasaki)

Alex Lowes:
2021: Races: 29, Wins 0, Podiums 5, Superpoles 0
Career Race Wins: 2 (1 for Kawasaki)
Career Podiums: 29 (9 for Kawasaki)
Career Poles: 1 (0 for Kawasaki)

8 x Riders’ Championships (Scott Russell 1993, Tom Sykes 2013, Rea 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020), 1 x EVO Riders’ Championship (David Salom 2014)
6 x Manufacturers’ Championships (Ninja ZX-10R 2015 & 2016, Ninja ZX-10RR 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020)
5 x Teams’ Championships (KRT/Provec Racing 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019)

Kawasaki FIM Superbike World Championship Statistics
Total Kawasaki Race Wins: 169 – second overall
Total Kawasaki Podiums: 485 – second overall
Total Kawasaki Poles: 100 – second overall

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