Jonathan Rea completed what may be his final MotoGP race for the foreseeable future in a creditable seventh place at Aragon in Spain yesterday, then declared: I hope I’ll be back some day.

Rea received a dream call-up to the factory Repsol Honda team as a replacement for injured world champion Casey Stoner and impressed on his debut with a solid eighth place at Misano two weeks ago.

The 25-year-old World Superbike star closed the deficit further to the leading MotoGP contenders at Aragon in only his second race on the RC213V, just over four seconds behind Alvaro Bautista on the Gresini Honda in sixth and ahead of motorcycle legend Valentino Rossi, who ran off the track after tangling with Rea on lap one before regrouping to take eighth.

Spain’s Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) won the race by over six seconds from title favourite Jorge Lorenzo (Factory Yamaha) to close the gap at the top to 33 points with four races remaining.

Rea had been linked to a full-time MotoGP ride in 2013 with the Gresini team, but last weekend the Ulsterman signed a contract extension to remain in World Superbikes with Honda under the Ten Kate Racing banner.

Nonetheless, Rea has thanked Honda for an “amazing” opportunity and outlined his desire to return to the MotoGP paddock in the future.

Australian ace Stoner is targeting a return at the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi on October 14, and Honda will confirm this week whether or not the reigning champion has recovered sufficiently to reclaim his ride in the team.

Rea said: “It’s been amazing to get this chance and I’m not totally sure what’s happening for Motegi, but my best wishes go to Casey and I hope he comes back and shows the world the rider he is and ends his final season on a high.

“I want to thank all of HRC and the Repsol Honda team for this opportunity and for treating me like one of their own, not like a replacement rider - it’s been an amazing experience.

“This is my tenth year in the Honda family and hopefully I can come back here some day.”

Rea, who finished 32 seconds behind race winner Pedrosa, said he had achieved his personal objective during his short stint in the blue riband class.

“I’m happy I achieved my goal of reducing the gap to the guys at the front,” said Rea.

“In the end we managed it by 10 seconds but it was another difficult race as I found myself on my own again.

“At the beginning I let Alvaro [Bautista] have too big a gap and when I tried to make a push, it wasn’t enough and we were only taking tenths out of him but I’m quite satisfied and I’ve learned a lot,” he added.

“In this race it was quite confusing for me as I was playing with the traction control buttons, the torque settings and the engine braking just to try and figure out what was happening, then there came a point where I told myself just to ride this thing and see what happens.”

Andrea Dovizioso got the better of his Tech 3 Yamaha team-mate, Cal Crutchlow, to claim the final podium spot with Ben Spies fifth.




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