Imola’s weekend gave to Jonathan Rea a lot of confidence after a start of the season in which Alvaro Bautista and his Ducati dominated without giving any chance to their rivals, starting from the reigning World Champion. The Briton from Kawasaki needed a positive result in a friendly track for him and his bike and he knew that Italian GP could have been a great chance for both of them.

https://www.motorlat.com/notas/wsbk/10970/how-jonathan-rea-needed-coming-back-to-victory

It is a good thing for the Championship as long as there was the risk that it would have been already over in case Bautista was successful also in a tough circuit for him even if he had the chance to test it before the race weekend. Rea desperately wanted that win and he was visualizing it from Assen, like he said.

43 points now separate the two title contenders, with the Spaniard having a consistent gap on the four time world champion, who surely will not give up so early and he is gonna try everything he could to stop and defend again his title. Anyway, at the moment Alvaro seems to be unstoppable except in tracks in which he never tried like Imola, making us think which other tracks could be good for Rea and Kawasaki.

What about Jerez so? For sure it is a track that Bautista knows well by the way in which he rode there since his first years in MotoGP, previously with 125cc, then with 250cc and at the end with MotoGP bikes, but at the same time layout should be good for Kawasaki. The Spaniard seems to be confident and tests before the race will surely help especially Ducati to work in the areas in which they are struggling more from the moment.

It would not be a suprise so having another hattrick from the Championship leader, who won Race 1, Superpole Race and Race 2 in Phillip Island, Buriram, Aragon and Assen (where there was not Superpole Race due to Race 1 cancellation on Saturday). Not an ideal scenario for Jonathan Rea, who has to recover much more points as possible and could not make any mistake.

We should take a look at Bautista’s teammate also, with Chaz Davies leaving Imola’s weekend in a good way and coming back to the podium after a good Superpole Race; on Saturday he could not fight for the victory in Race 1 due to an electronic problem but he seemed to have enough pace to get at least a 2nd place. A competitive Chaz could help Alvaro on getting even more championship points on Rea.