Rea's 120mph crash in pictures

During Friday Free at Portimao, 23 year old Jonathan Rea suffered a massive high side onboard his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda. Rea amazingly walked away from the crash and went on to secure his first podium of the season in the opening race on Sunday.

Speaking to MCN after seeing the pictures taken by photographer Alina-Cristina Udrescu, Rea explained what happened in the crash.

“The first picture is what you call the point of no return and I don’t know why I’m still holding on. We made a change to our traction control strategy, before I would have been on a constant throttle at this point and the electronics would have supported me, but because of the new bumps it just let go.

“In the second picture I’ve backed of the gas and the tyre has gripped and it’s now that it usually flips you over the high side, but for some reason I’ve grabbed the throttle again and it’s straightened the thing up.

“The third picture it’s all over. Normally when you high side it’s like a bucking bronco and you have to let go, but this one was different and it was now that I made the executive decision to get off.

“In the last picture I came down pretty hard and I grazed my hip and my knee in the crash, but the biggest problem was a loss of confidence, because I didn’t expect the crash.”