Rea Tops Jerez Times

Jonathan Rea completed his final test sessions of 2018 at Jerez de la Frontera in Spain today, before a mandatory winter break in WorldSBK action.  Enjoying two days on track with the latest specification of the Ninja ZX-10RR race machine, Rea set a 1’38.713 lap time on the final morning, even though the track surface was beginning to show signs of wear and tear in some areas.

Rea was quickest on both race and qualifying rubber, as he and his technical crew tried new chassis balance and suspension initiatives that delivered positive results all round.

With two days of largely dry weather, the pace of the top WorldSBK riders improved steadily from the beginning of the final day, with the slightly cooler conditions early on providing the best conditions to go for a best lap time.

With a winter break from track action now kicking in Kawasaki will evaluate the data from the Motorland Aragon and Jerez tests before heading back to Jerez and then Portimao in late January next year for their final European based winter tests of the 2019 season.

Jonathan Rea, stated: “It was a positive final day. We are putting the pieces together and we have to be satisfied with the work. It is always difficult when the track is in not great shape. In all those tight corners, with the ruts developing, it is difficult to feel the confidence to push to the maximum. Aside from that, the track temperatures are very critical here with the base tyre that we have. Like yesterday, we tried some different things with the bike and at the end of the day we tried something quite interesting with the balance. I felt really good with an old tyre so that is something to keep working with in 2019. I also did a longer run in the middle of the day. We did pretty much what we set out to do at this test and I was on the pace on day one, so we could go testing straight away.”