Mike Di Meglio was full of praise for his F.C.C. TSR Honda France team-mate Gino Rea following the thrilling finish to the 24H SPA EWC Motos earlier this month.
Rea, a new Honda-powered recruit for 2022, beat home hero Xavier Siméon to the final podium spot after the pair engaged in a dramatic on-track tussle, despite the demanding weather conditions making riding extremely challenging.
Speaking after he hit back from a fall in the closing stages of the rain-hit race, Frenchman Di Meglio said: I didn’t understand my slide; I just braked normally and lost the front. We were very lucky that the bike was not damaged. That’s why I was very disappointed that the race was stopped when I took my next stint. But I’m glad we had the opportunity to finish the race with a real battle on track. After my crash, I preferred to let Gino do the last sprint because I knew he could brake harder than me. A big thank you to him for doing the job.
Briton Rea said: For three-quarters of the race, none of us made any mistakes. We had a very good pace and led the race before we had a technical problem. We came back from 10th place to finish on the podium, which is an incredible result. To get back to third place, I had to beat Xavier Siméon. After making a small mistake at Turn 1, I managed to catch him and stay ahead.
F.C.C. TSR Honda France, which also included Australian Josh Hook in its line-up, could so easily have challenged for the victory in Belgium had the chain on the squad’s CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP not failed after 15 hours of running when Rea was riding. The incident left the Briton with no choice but to push his stricken bike back to the pits. That long delay plus the 15 minutes spent making repairs dropped F.C.C. TSR Honda France down the order before its late comeback.
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
