Image: Supplied.

Triple Superbike world champion Jonathan Rea has declared Sunday’s 2018 edition of the Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours as extremely difficult, overcoming an uncharacteristic crash to complete the podium in third.

Teaming up with Leon Haslam and Kazuma Watanabe at Kawasaki Team Green and scorching to pole position, Rea was in the fight for victory until running out of fuel on his in-lap toward halfway, then later crashed when rainfall caught him out on slick tyres.

“It was a very, very difficult race,” Rea reflected. “We had so many different conditions thrown at us and things we were not prepared for. I am really happy and I gave a big effort. Myself, Leon, Kazuma and the all the team fell short.

“The chips just did not fall our way this year and congratulations to Yamaha and Honda. It just didn’t happen for us, but we proved our speed which I am really happy about. I just want to thank my teammates, they did a really good job in a difficult race.”

Despite their troubles, Rea, next year’s WorldSBK teammate Haslam and Watanabe managed to salvage a podium result to cap-off the 2018 Endurance World Championship season in Japan.