Jonathan Rea returns to World Superbikes to stand in for injured Jake Dixon at Portimao for Honda
Updated 20/03/2026 at 13:49 GMT
Multiple fractures to Jake Dixon's left wrist and hand means that he will miss the upcoming World Superbikes Grand Prix at Portimao in Portugal this weekend. In his place will be Jonathan Rea, who retired from the sport as a full-time rider last season but then joined Honda as their lead test rider. With Dixon injured, Rea will now step in as cover for the weekend, and potentially beyond.
Jonathan Rea
Image credit: Getty Images
Jonathan Rea will return to World Superbike to stand in for Jake Dixon at Honda while he is out injured.
Rea is a World Superbikes legend, with six world championships to his name, but stepped away from competing at the end of the 2025 season.
He will be racing again when he replaces Dixon at Portimao on March 28 and 29, where he will hope to add to his already incredible racing achievements.
The Ulsterman has 119 wins in the discipline so far, after making his debut in 2008 and then retiring in 2025, before this comeback offered him the opportunity to potentially grab at least one more success.
As well as Honda, Rea has ridden for Kawasaki and Yamaha, but he remains the test rider for HRC, meaning he was the natural replacement for Dixon.
Rea has had his own injury problems, but has tested for his team already, including in Portugal last week.
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Dixon suffered a serious injury during pre-season testing in Australia ahead of the new season.
On the last day of testing, Dixon sustained several fractures to his left wrist and hand.
After dropping down from Moto2 in the break between seasons, Dixon is yet to make his debut in World Superbikes.
He is now pencilled in for the race at Assen on the weekend of April 17-19, but that remains a provisional date rather than the guaranteed event for the Briton to make his debut.
For Rea, it marks a competitive return to the sport with Honda for the first time since 2014, with the Northern Ireland man last turning out for the Japanese manufacturer more than a decade ago.
Rea’s WorldSuperbike debut for Honda came back in 2008, when he started riding with Ten Kate, before going full time with the squad in the following year’s campaign.
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In that 2009 season he won two races, before four wins in 2010, and then a further two in each of the next two seasons. His best return for Honda was in his last year in 2014, when he finished third in the overall standings and won four races.
He has had other successes with the Japanese team, coming second in the 2007 British Superbike Championship, and was then runner-up in World Supersport in 2008 with the manufacturer.
In 2012, he was an injury stand-in for Casey Stona for Honda as he made his first and last appearances in MotoGP.
Despite impressing with an eighth-place finish at San Marino and then seventh at Aragon in Spain, he did not ride in MotoGP again.
He impressed in his limited time on the bike, finishing eighth at the San Marino Grand Prix and seventh at Aragon.
He also turned out at the Suzuka 8 Hours for a win for Honda in 2012, an event he would then win with Kawasaki seven years later.
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