Despite starting the two World Superbike race at Magny-Cours in France from pole position, the day ended in disappointment for Castrol Honda rider Jonathan Rea as the 24-year-old from Northern Ireland finished neither race.

In race one, Rea appeared to jump the start but, as he stopped, the lights went out and he was left down in seventh place on the opening laps. At the end of lap four, as he prepared to fight his way back to the front, Rea touched the curb at the final chicane, crashing out of contention.

He went out for race two on his spare CBR1000RR Fireblade and got the perfect start from his pole position, leading into the first turn and the subsequent seven laps. However, on lap 13, Rea's bike slowed visibly and he retired shortly afterwards, his team diagnosing a faulty crank ignition sensor as the cause of his retirement.

"This is not exactly what we expected after a strong performance in Imola and we were hoping to make up for the disappointment of that second race retirement. We kind of got halfway there with the pole position yesterday, but raceday was a completely different chapter. In race one, you know, I can put my hand up and say I got completely out of rhythm after I thought I'd jumped the start. Actually, when we checked the wheel speeds, it turned out that it wasn't a jump start - it was just a short movement, but I got swamped in the pack. I was out of my rhythm then and ended up making a stupid mistake over a kerb. I was leading race two for a good bit and enjoying myself. Eugene went past and made a bit of a break but I re-grouped and then realised that Carlos was coming. I thought I'd follow Carlos back up to Eugene and he'd pull us clear, but we had another silly little electrical malfunction. Of course it's disappointing for both myself and the team to have two DNFs here but now we're going to Portimao, which is a track that I really enjoy and we've had some success there. We won't feel sorry for ourselves because we know we've got the pace to run at the front, no matter what the conditions, so we'll got to Portugal and I'll do my best as usual."