Jonathan Rea finished seventh in the second of today’s two inaugural World Superbike championship races at Moscow Raceway in Russia after looking like a podium contender in both.

The two races were won by Tom Sykes and Marco Melandri as the World Superbike championship visited the new 3.931km Moscow Raceway for the first time.

Rea crashed out of third place on lap 11 of the opening race when he selected a false neutral on his CBR1000RR Fireblade approaching turn 18. With little run-off at the left-hander, Rea’s bike crashed into the barriers causing enough damage to warrant his crew building a new race machine for the second 25-lap outing.

Again, Rea was dicing for a podium position on the final lap when rival Eugene Laverty crashed in front of him, leaving the 25-year-old from Northern Ireland with nowhere to go. Rea managed to get his bike re-started to take seventh place while rueing what might have been.

His Honda World Superbike team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama struggled for grip in the first race and finished 14th. In race two, the 30-year-old Japanese was hit twice from behind on the opening lap – first at the difficult turn five, which he survived but re-joined the race in last place. Aoyama had already passed one rider, but at the final corner he was hit again, crashing out with a bruised knee.

Jonathan Rea – DNF and 7th

It’s been quite a frustrating day because we had good pace in both races. In race one I was battling for the podium and had a false neutral in turn 16 so, with no engine braking, I lost the front. The guys had to build me a new bike from parts in the truck and luckily it felt pretty good for race two. I got a slowish start and could see that Sykes was pulling away but I thought I could go with him and Melandri and I had to get past Laverty. The bike felt really good, but I was losing a lot of ground on the straight. I got involved in another rider’s crash when he highsided in front of me but that’s part of racing. We can take some positives out of the day because my crew worked slowly and surely through the weekend and we got a bike that was capable of winning. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot to show for it, so it’s been a tough weekend.

Hiroshi Aoyama – 14th and DNF

As a whole, I think we had quite a good weekend. We have been in better positions and our lap times have been positive. I was happy to have been in a competitive place and I wanted to make two good results in the races today. In race one, the tyre did not work at all and I could not finish any higher. In the second race somebody crashed into me twice. I had a big impact on my back in the crash and I found it quite difficult to breathe so I went to the medical centre. It was OK in the end and I have a big bruise on my knee from where my bike hit me. We’ll just think about the next race, which is at a track I do not know but I’ll try to learn it quickly and get closer to the front.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

It has not been a fortunate day for us. In race one, the wet and drying track proved to be quite difficult for Hiroshi who didn’t have the grip or the confidence to push for a better position. Jonathan crashed even though he had the speed, which was a real shame. He made a great effort in race two, however, after one or two mistakes in the beginning. He found a rhythm and was battling for the podium right to the end but, because of Eugene’s crash, he also crashed. He picked the bike up and got seventh but he deserved to be on the podium, so it was not so lucky. Hiroshi was even less fortunate – he was hit twice. The first time he was able to stay on the bike but he got hit again at the last corner. Luckily, he’s not hurt but it could have been so much better for him. During the test and practices he showed real potential to get in the top ten but it just didn’t happen, so it’s been a tough day for us all.

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