Jonathan Rea felt he finished the weekend “on a positive note” after claiming sixth place in the final race at Most in the Czech Republic as ended round six in tenth place in the World Superbike standings.
Turkey’s Toprak Razgatlioglu made it a sensational three trebles in a row with another clean sweep, extending his unbeaten run on the factory BMW to a perfect ten victories.
The former champion now leads the championship by 64 points at the halfway mark.
Pata Prometeon Yamaha rider Rea – 21 points behind Michael van der Mark in ninth – claimed eighth position in the morning’s Superpole sprint race to leave himself in the middle of the third row for race two.
The six-time champion rode a solid race to gain several positions, breaking into the top six as he scored his best result of the weekend.
Rea paid the price on Saturday for a crash in qualifying, which left him in 15th place on the grid.
The Ulster rider arrived in the Czech Republic on a high after clinching his first podium result as a Yamaha rider at his home round at Donington Park with third in the Superpole race and started impressively, ending Friday third fastest overall in free practice.
However, his crash in qualifying left him on the back foot and he was facing something of an uphill battle going into the Superpole race.
Rea, though, was satisfied with a top-six result to complete the weekend and is now looking ahead to round seven at Portimao in Portugal from August 9-11.
“The trajectory of the weekend was a positive one – from qualifying P15 to achieve tenth, eighth and sixth positions is somewhat positive but it really highlighted the importance of qualifying because track position is everything,” Rea said.
“My pace in all races was a little bit better than those around me, and even to be a bit more in front could have been achievable this weekend – but just trying to get through on traffic was really difficult.
“I made a really good start in race two after giving myself half a chance from the third row of the grid, but someone came through over the top in T2 and it killed my drive into Turn 3 – but never give up on the race, always.
“The podium group was a bit faster, but once I settled into my rhythm I was able to dispose of the Hondas pretty quick and (Michael) Rinaldi was the next target,” he added. “I just kept my head down lap after lap and caught him.
“We had a bit of tyre left; I could see the pace of the front guys was dropping but they were too far ahead.
“It ended on a positive note – thanks to the team for all their hard work this weekend, I didn’t make my own job or the team’s job easy this weekend with the crash in Superpole.
“We will come back and try to do a better job in Portimao.”
Unstoppable Razgatlioglu, who left Yamaha in a shock move to join BMW for 2024, won the Superpole race by 3.8s from Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati), who remained second in the championship.
Alex Lowes – a faller on Saturday – sealed third for the Kawasaki Racing Team.
Razgatlioglu won the 22-lap second race by 3.2s with Italy’s Bulega again securing the runner-up spot, with Rea’s Yamaha team-mate Andrea Locatelli taking third ahead of Remy Gardner (GRT Yamaha).
It was a disastrous Sunday for reigning champion Alvaro Bautista, with the Aruba.it Ducati rider crashing out of both races.
The Spaniard – who has indicated that he is set to continue in the series in 2025 and is negotiating with Ducati – holds third in the championship, 40 points behind Bulega.