Source: Supplied.

Defending superbike world champion Jonathan Rea has labelled the sixth round at Donington Park in the United Kingdom as a positive weekend after exiting the venue with a 64-point advantage in the series standings.

The Kawasaki Racing Team rider admitted it was a challenging weekend, where he managed to string together 2-3 race results, revealing he battled arm-pump in the late stages of race two which ultimately demoted him to third after holding down second for majority of the outing.

“It was a difficult race because in the beginning it was very aggressive from all riders,” Rea commented. “Guys who are not usually near the front were super-aggressive. When I got a track position I could be really be smooth and do my own thing.

“Michael passed me, made a good attack and was able to stretch that gap a little bit. I wasted a lot of tyre and energy trying to get back to him. I also ran into some arm pump under braking at the end so it was hard to start thinking about attacking Michael.

“I could see Toprak was coming from my pit board but there was nothing I could do about him at that point, as he had better pace at the end. The target here at Donington was to exit the weekend with more than 50 points of advantage in the championship and we exceeded that, so for me it was a positive weekend.”

With a healthy lead in the championship, Rea now looks forward to the seventh stop of the series, scheduled for 8-10 June at Brno in the Czech Republic.