Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) celebrated his 100th career win in the season opener after missing it in the Estoril final last year.

Jonathan Rea after his milestone on May 22, 2021 in Aragon: „It was the 100th race win today and this is the result of a lot of hard work. Last winter, Kawasaki devoted itself intensively to the new bike, and we were definitely able to take a step forward. I also worked very hard on myself in the off-season and I know that I have improved in all areas. I was born with the dream of riding motorcycles and, from 1993, going on motocross tracks accompanied by my parents. The following story is absolutely insane. To be given the opportunity to get into Supersport in 2008 and the Superbike World Championship immediately after my rookie season.”

The first WorldSBK victory of Jonathan Rea with Michel Fabrizio on the left, who celebrated his comeback in the WSSP in Aragon and on the right with Noriyuki “Nitro Nori” Haga the best WorldSBK driver in history who never won a title. For more about the earlier years of WorldSBK, see our ever-growing, richly illustrated history.

Rea continues: “I took my first race win at Misano in 2009 as a rookie and now with 100 wins that’s really unbelievable. Every race win is special, and I’ve never been a statistician, but as I approached 100 wins that was a big goal. It’s such a cool number and a career milestone. I am very proud of it. We had a bit of bad luck in the winter tests with bad weather, but my team left no stone unturned and showed up at every test we could drive. Thanks to all the staff, they reorganized and rescheduled things so. Not just management, but all the mechanics and their families who made this sacrifice. We’ve been away from home for so long this off-season, often without actually being able to drive laps, but we’re in a good position now. Now winning the first race, our championship starts 25 points better than last year. This was an excellent start to the season.“

Victory number 50 for Jonathan Rea 2017 in Magny-Cours with Marco Melandri (P2, Ducati) on the left and the then Kawasaki Racing team-mate Tom Sykes on the right, today on the road for BMW, but so far without a win in the blue-whites in the third year (© Kawasaki Racing Team).

Alex Lowes after hard-fought second place in 1st race of Aragon: „I felt good all weekend, was very strong and did a lot of laps. In the race around lap six or seven, I experienced some difficulties and got problems with the front of the bike. This came as a surprise to me. After that I thought to myself that since this is the first race of the year it would be all for nothing if I fall now. I said to myself then, find your rhythm, let Jonathan drive and if someone passes you try to fight. Of course, when I realized this was Toprak, and he brakes so well, I was warned. In this area, for some reason, I didn’t have the same feeling as I did in the tests and training. Fortunately, Toprak used an SCX rear tire and over time it started to slip a lot. I was pretty limber, did well, and started fighting him again. The second part of the race was pretty tough, but with the problems I had, I couldn’t wait to fight for second place in the end. The positive point was that qualifying went really well, the start was even excellent, and I drove really well from the start. With this we can try to improve further for tomorrow. “

Alex Lowes (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) in front of the previous 7-time record winner (Rea drew level with him on Saturday) Chaz Davie on the GoEleven Ducati Panigale V4R. In the end, the man from Lincoln made it to 2nd place and the Welsh Ducati privateer had to be content with 5th place.

Tom Sykes (BMW) after P6: „We came here and still had some test tasks to do. To be honest, we found a good compromise. First there was still a few things to try out in free practice and to try to work on a good racing set-up. I think it wasn’t that bad. Of course, I still don’t have the package I want in the first quarter of the race. Then towards the end of the race I could see that we had a pretty good pace, certainly better than the guys in front. It’s still early days and to be honest I think given the limitations I had that P6 isn’t bad. Now we have time to sit down and take a look and make some changes for tomorrow. Overall, it’s not been a bad start so far. “

The Assen podium in April 2018 with the last victory of Tom Sykes (in the centre of the picture) in the second race together with Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha on the left, now his BMW team-mate) and his then Kawasaki colleague Jonathan Rea.

The consequence of the open words of the Huddersfield man

We pointed out early on that the late start of BMW’s tests could become a boomerang. Unfortunately, Tom Sykes was absolutely right with his statement after the first race in Aragon. In the case of a factory team with a new model, the fans of the blue and white rightly wonder why they didn’t do their homework. Advance praise of the “rainbow press” does little to change that. It was one of the longest winter breaks ever and BMW definitely went out on the track way too late with the new M-1000RR. It shouldn’t be the case that the hopefuls of a team have to confirm after the first race that they weren’t able to test enough before. At least not with a works team, which for the second time after 2020 before the start of the season opened its mouth a lot when it came to management. Without the bad luck of Bautista and Gerloff, Sykes would only have made eighth place and this as the only driver in the BMW top ten.

Tom Sykes photographed by us before the start at the beginning of April 2019 in his first season for BMW and in the foreground on the right his current brand colleague Eugene Laverty, who retired from the 1st race in 2021 with technical problems. The first year was the only one in which the BMW works team has been able to convince since its return to the WSBK.

Michael van der Mark (BMW) after P11: „We were really unlucky on Saturday morning. We lost a lot of time because we had this problem with the bike. In the end, the guys fixed the problem, and I was able to do one lap in FP3, but I still need more laps after losing almost all of FP2 the day before. My Superpole wasn’t that bad, but it was my first time with a qualifying tire, and it changes the bike a lot, so you have to get used to it. I got off to a good start in the race and felt very strong on the first few laps, but at one point on the track I lost too much to stay with the other guys. Only a certain sector. That was a bit of a shame, because afterwards I tried to force more and put too much pressure on the front tire and lost even more time as a result. But overall it was important to finally drive a long distance, and we can learn a lot from it. Tomorrow is a new day and with all the information we have now, tomorrow should be better.“ (the editorial team: If this is really true, we don’t understand anything any more, because in 3 tests there was countless time to try out a qualifier tire!)

Michael van der Mark (BMW M-1000RR) – his own and the statements of Tom Sykes give food for thought. Everything suggests that the blue and whites have prepared themselves completely amateurishly for the new season with the new bike and as if the riders are now paying the bill.

Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda) – dnf in the first race: „It’s really a shame about today because we drove a very competitive race at a very high level. I lost a bit of time on the first laps fighting with other drivers. This caused a small gap to open up between me and the group in front of me, but once I found my rhythm and had some overtaking manoeuvres, I was able to do a strong lap and overtake the podium contenders. I had a good chance to hold on and fight to the end, but unfortunately I had some technical issues with three or four laps to go. It got a little worse with every lap and shortly before the end I crashed into turn two. When we analysed the data afterwards, we found that there was an electronic problem with a sensor. In the middle of the corner I suddenly had full power and lost the rear tire. It’s a shame, but luckily I’m uninjured and if we see it positively, we can be satisfied with our race performance. Tomorrow we have two more options, and we’ll see how to do it. I am satisfied with our work because we are getting closer and closer to the leaders, and hopefully we can finish the races with good results tomorrow. “

Alvaro Bautista behind Tom Sykes (BMW) and in front of HRC Honda team-mate Leon Haslam – only a lot of bad luck and a technical problem shortly before the end prevented a top result in the first race of the season for the little Spaniard (© HRC Honda).

Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) – 8th place in the 1st race: “The race was pretty tough to be honest as I struggled a little with traction up front which meant I didn’t feel like I could really push. We handled the situation pretty well and won a fight with Gerloff’s Yamaha on the last lap, but my performance was a bit up and down over the course of the race. My pace wasn’t far from the top 5, but I didn’t feel like I could really fight. We will work to improve things before tomorrow’s races so that I can hopefully be in shape for the positions that will add even more points “

The “picturesque view” from our flat in Alcaniz – hotels are in short supply here, and you have to take what you get to be only halfway closer to the route.

The results of the first races of WSBK and WorldSSP 600

Schedule for the first race weekend of 2021

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© WorldSBK).