World Superbike series leader Jonathan Rea made a gearing change for today’s free practice and Superpole sessions, and managed to find some exra pace using only five gears instead of the usual six to bag a front-row start at Imola tomorrow.
The Kawasaki man has concentrated on his race setup today in Italy, doing two simulations in both cool and warm conditions, and says that teamn-mate Tom Sykes will be his biggest rival in both outings.
“Pere has worked me really hard today, we did two race runs, one in the cooler conditions like race one, one in the hotter conditions like race two and it has been good. In FP3 we changed the wheelbase to make it a little more stable for me and in the second session we changed the gearing and it was much better,” said Rea, speaking at the track.
“Instead of a six-speed bike now we’re five and a half I guess. It’s a bit easier during the lap, I am quicker. Superpole was a good lap, I was a little scrappy in turn one, I outbraked myself once. A lot of people did fast laps on the second but for me that was impossible, there wasn’t the grip.
“Right now I am concentrating on my race pace. Hopefully we can find a little bit more tonight. It’s hard to say who will be fast tomorrow, my teammate is quick, the Ducatis also and Haslam has also done some fast laps but I think the Kawasaki and Ducati are the best packages.”
