Gordon Ritchie | February 21, 2017
World Champion Rea shows his class at the Island
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) once more demonstrated why he is a double WorldSBK champion and still favorite to lift the crown again in 2017 by posting a lap time on race tire in official pre-season testing that would be up he sharp end of any Superpole contest.
His 1:30.545 on day two of the Phillip Island pre-season test may have only been 0.030s ahead of WorldSBK returnee Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Ducati WorldSBK) but Rea’s laid back approach perfectly mirrors his sky-high confidence.
“The track was in good shape and a bit hotter this afternoon than this morning so the pace was a little bit slower,” he said of the final day’s action, which was as dry and consistent as the first day was changeable and messy,
He worked with two machines and despite having identical set-ups on each has now chosen his ‘favorite’ one.
“We have understood both of our bikes today, understanding some new parts for the race weekend and put some mileage on the new parts to get ready. I feel good on the same tire for many laps, although we did not put one full race run together because I did not really want to. All-in-all it is just putting the best package together now.”
Melandri was also pleased about his returning form.
“I am ready but for sure I need to learn even more,” Melandri said. “You can always learn more but all the winter tests we planned to discover all the bike set-ups and so some of them were working well for me, some not as good in Portimao, but now we have a history to understand what we need to do. Here the biggest step forward was that I could use the extra grip from the new tire.”
Right behind a green and then a red bike was another red bike, from Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Ducati WorldSBK) and behind him the second main green machine was fourth overall, for Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team). Same top machines, different season so far, but Phillip Island has a habit of bringing forth tight races and sometimes unexpected race results.
Maybe PI’s race weekend will allow first day fastest man Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Ducati) to go from a fifth in testing to his first win in this category.
It would be a stretch to image that testing top six rider Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) could win at PI but at a track that Eugene Laverty won at with a Suzuki a few years ago, anything will be possible.
Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia) pushed on to seventh in the final testing analysis, and Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK) eighth, the top Yamaha rider, from Jordi Torres (Althea Racing BMW) and rookie Randy Krummenacher (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) completing the top 10.
Nicky Hayden left the test far from impressed
“This is not the position or the pace we want to be,” the 2006 MotoGP World Champion said forthrightly of his 14th place. “We can look at the lap times and see where we are at. The team had some ideas after Portimao that they thought would help but it turns out that it has not made much of a difference. We are not as confident as we want to be. I am not going to blow smoke and tell you how we are right there on the verge of the track record or podium. We have to be realistic about the negatives but find some positives and keep working.” Gordon Ritchie