Day One Complete For Rea At Misano

Jonathan Rea ended today’s Free Practice sessions for round five of the 2023 WorldSBK championship at Misano with a lap time that put him inside the top ten.

The weather at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on the Adriatic coast was warm and dry with the track surface temperature increasing over 10 degrees to 47C for the afternoon session.

Rea was finally ninth fastest overall with a best lap time of 1m 34.713, losing most of his potential pace in one sector of the track. Now he and his team will study the data to come up with a more competitive final machine set-up for Race One on Saturday.

Jonathan Rea, stated: “It was difficult enough to get up to speed today. I still don’t feel that we are maximising the bike right now. We are quite far off and we don’t have much time. The others are much faster right now, so we have work to do. The acceleration towards and then out of the Quercia corner is where I am really struggling. Really just one corner of the track. Tyre consumption wasn’t so bad today but we are just not fast enough. I do not feel super-competitive right now, but it is nice to come here and see so many people on a Friday.”