Rea revs up for Sepang

Rea, who finished sixth in both races, was never able to get in contention for the podium at last month’s outing.

The Ballyclare rider looked back at the meeting and reckoned he and his Pata Honda team didn’t get what they wanted from the weekend but at least left Donington with some more precious points in the bag.

“It wasn’t the perfect meeting for us, we really struggled on the Friday and I think it just carried through the rest of the weekend,” admitted the former Larne Grammar pupil.

“It was quite difficult to maximise our mechanical grip, being a low-grip circuit. However, we can just go away with all the information we’ve gathered and, hopefully, use it to our advantage in the future. We didn’t disgrace ourselves but we were quite a long way off the race winner.”

“We certainly have to do some work before Sepang but I’m looking forward to riding the Pata Honda at the far eastern circuit because it’s not just a test for bikes but also a test of human performance as well because the temperature is going to be quite high.

“I’ve done some testing there for HRC in 2010, before the final year of the 800cc machines, and I really enjoyed the track. The layout is nice, it has got two very long straights which we will need to find a little bit more horsepower for, but the rest of the track should suit the bike really well.”