Rea Battles The Weather In Magny Cours

The 2022 FIM Superbike World Championship got back to action today at Circuit de Nevers Magny Cours for round seven of the 12 round season. Both WorldSBK sessions were run in mixed weather conditions with rain arriving at the start of FP1 and just before FP2.

Six time world champion Jonathan Rea was caught out in the morning session when the rain came and wasn’t able to set a fast time on the dry track. However, in the wet conditions he was setting fast lap times.

A heavy shower in the afternoon meant that FP2 started on a full wet track but shortly after the session started the rain stopped. Jonathan posted the quickest time on what became a drying track and was satisfied with the progress made.

The forecast for the remainder of the weekend is for drier conditions, making tomorrow’s 30-minute FP3 session crucial for the set up of Rea’s Ninja ZX-10RR ahead of Superpole Qualifying and WorldSBK Race 1.

Jonathan Rea, stated: “On my out lap this morning I felt it OK then during the first chrono I started to get spots on my visor. Then the rain kept coming, so it is how it is. In the wet conditions this morning it was a bit wetter than it finished this afternoon in FP2. I felt good in the full wet. In the afternoon we went to work on a drying track/wet set-up because in 2020 I got caught out with a dry line appearing but getting no drive out of the corners. I felt we made a good improvement. It would have been good to get a dry session today, given the weekend is going to be dry. FP3 could be a very important session tomorrow morning.”