Rea Rides On In Testing
The Jonathan Rea/KRT era in WorldSBK continued unabated even after a month away from the last competitive world championship outing, as he finished off a two-day official Dorna test at Portimao ahead of his main rivals by almost a second.
Rea’s 1’41.192 best was even under the Superpole record set by his (absent) team-mate Tom Sykes, as Rea gapped second place finisher Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha) at a sweltering Portuguese track by fully 0.948 seconds.
Rea set his best time on the second day; a mere 33 minutes after the green light went on to release the riders at 9am.
“Today we set off straight away and confirmed some chassis items, and then worked with Pirelli testing some tyres,” said Rea. “At the end of the test we started to work a little bit on what we think might be a race set-up, from a chassis-balance point of view.”
With Rea imperious out front, even if his team-mate Sykes missed the test after suffering a right ankle training injury playing football, the other 16 WorldSBK regulars shared the heat of a Portuguese summer along with their track time.
Pata Yamaha runners Lowes and Michael van der Mark were the only two to get within a second of Rea’s best time. Each of those three riders was back in WorldSBK harness after racing at the Suzuka 8-Hour recently, on different tyres from the Pirellis used in WorldSBK.
Pirelli brought new options to try, including varieties of the bigger (taller) fronts and rears that have arrived in the paddock recently.
Despite the news that he would be replaced by Alvaro Bautista for 2019 and the beginning of the vee-four Ducati era, Aruba.it Racing Ducati factory rider Marco Melandri was fourth fastest, just over a second from Rea. His still-healing current team-mate Chaz Davies was fifth quickest, with Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Ducati) completing the top six riders, as the top independent rider on show.
Milwaukee Aprilia rider Lorenzo Savadori finished his two testing days seventh. Comeback kid Leon Camier (Red Bull Honda WorldSBK team) placed eighth, with Jordi Torres (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) ninth and part-time rider Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing Junior Team Ducati) completing the top ten.
Next up for all the top riders in WorldSBK is the tenth round of the championship, again at Portimao but in mid-September – and with real points up for grabs this time.
Final Best Lap Times
1 J. REA Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 1’41.192
2 A. LOWES Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team 1’42.140
3 M. VAN DER MARK Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK 1’42.182
4 M.MELANDRI Aruba.it Racing 1’42.254
5 C. DAVIES Aruba.it Racing – Ducati 1’42.564
6 X. FORES Barni Racing Team Ducati 1’42.709
7 L. SAVADORI Milwaukee Aprilia 1’42.713
8 L. CAMIER Red Bull Honda World Superbike 1’42.718
9 J. TORRES MV Agusta Reparto Corse 1’42.800
10 M. RINALDI Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team 1’42.862
11 E. LAVERTY Milwaukee Aprilia 1’43.112
12 T. RAZGATLIOGLU Kawasaki Puccetti Racing 1’43.299
13 J. GAGNE Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team 1’43.361
14 L. MERCADO Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki 1’43.529
15 P. JACOBSEN TripleM Honda World Superbike 1’44.247
16 R. RAMOS Team GoEleven Kawasaki 1’44.572
17 Y. HERNANDEZ Team Pedercini Racing Kawasaki 1’44.774
By Gordon Ritchie