Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea set the third fastest time overall during this afternoon’s second World Superbike free practice session at Portimao – and the rider feels that he has made more progress with the bike in one day, than he did during the whole of the race weekend at Misano.
The Northern Irishman and his crew have made some ‘brave’ changes to his bike and he feels his has improved massively since the Winter test at the Portuguese track a few months ago.
Rea is enjoying his time on the circuit, and hopes it pays off come race day, especially as the 27-year-old’s time of 1’43.939s was good enough for third overall - just six hundredths of a second behind, Aprilia’s Marco Melandri.
“I feel like we’ve made more progress in one day here than we did all weekend in Misano. Part of that is down to the way we’ve been applying changes during the session – we’ve been a lot braver with making the changes,” said Rea.
“We’re coming from outside the box and we’ve needed to do that. I really enjoy riding this circuit and I have a good feeling for what I need to go fast around here. In that respect, this is a good circuit for me to be able to give the guys some direction and I think we’re definitely making progress.
“We worked a long time on one tyre today and took it into the afternoon to understand how the race is going to be with the high temperatures, but we’ll see. The pace for everyone around here is a little bit slow but I think that’s down to the grip level.
“It’s really low compared to last year and even the winter test. But to be so close on the first day is good so we just need to keep making positive changes to improve the bike more. Hopefully we can make those right changes tonight and come back stronger tomorrow."
