Rea satisfied with WSBK start

Castletown resident Jonathan Rea made a solid start to his latest World Superbike championship campaign at the weekend.

The 28-year-old Ulsterman finished sixth and fifth in the two races at Phillip Island.

Rea's Pata Honda team mate Leon Haslam crashed out of the first race, but came back to finish just behind him in sixth in the second one.

Speaking afterwards, Rea said he was reasonably satisfied with the result, as the team had made big improvements on last year's performances at Phillip Island, but says more work needs to be done on mechanical grip.