Australia’s Broc Parkes has rued the incident that forced him out of Sunday’s World Supersport race at Portimao on the opening lap.

Parkes, second in qualifying, was desperately unlucky when Gino Rea’s machine suddenly lost rear traction and almost caused Rea to fall exiting a left hand corner early in lap one.

Broc was so close behind that he could not avoid his rival and the impact punctured a hole in the Ninja ZX-6R’s engine cases, losing oil and coolant and causing Broc to retire through no fault of his own or his machine’s.

“Gino Rea lost control in front of me and I had nowhere to go,” Parkes explained. “His bike’s footpeg went through the side casing of my bike and all the water and oil came out so I could not continue. I was last after that incident and I was really upset because I knew I could have battled for another race win and second in the championship.

“For me that was the big thing, to try and get second. But congratulations to David [Salom], he rode well and got the runner-up place. We just needed to be a little bit more consistent because we got three DNFs and you cannot win championships with that, even though this one was not my fault.”

Parkes won the race at Misano this year but three DNFs have put him fourth in the final championship standings.