Rea Second Fastest Under The Misano Sun

Jonathan Rea placed second overall after two Free Practice sessions at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli today in hot weather conditions.

On a day where several riders fell on the hot and sometimes slippery track surface, that approached 50°C on occasion, Jonathan himself slid off without injury in the closing stages of the second Free Practice session.

Only a fast final lap from Michael van Der Mark (Yamaha) deposed Jonathan from the top spot on Friday’s combined practice times. A fastest lap of 1’36.029 was just 0.008 seconds from the overnight leader as JR made good preparations for Superpole and then the first race of the weekend. Such was the close competition on day one that the top 13 riders set lap times within a second of each other

Jonathan Rea, stated: “It is much hotter than it was at the test we had here recently. There was not a lot of rubber down at the test but even today the grip levels are lower. But saying that, it feels more normal especially compared to Jerez last time out, where the grip levels were so high you were pushing the tyres into the ground. The bike is moving around a little here and we are just trying to understand where we are with it. I felt we had a really good pace and my speed was good today, and we understood some different tyres. It is now clear the tyre we are going to use. For the first day I feel not bad; actually comfortable on the bike.”