Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea ended today’s Imola World Superbike test on top of the timesheets after spending the day looking at reducing tyre wear on the Fireblade.

The Irishman took a dominant double win here yesterday but expressed concern about how his rear Pirelli faired compared to that of his podum rivals and said he would be looking for an answer in testing today.

Rea ended up with a 1’47.225, which is under his fastest lap from yesterday and Tom Sykes’ lap record set last year, and just over a tenth faster than Ducati’s Chaz Davies, who bounced into second spot with only eight minutes left.

“We tried a couple of things and the tyre wear was a lot better than yesterday but that might also have something to do with the lower temperature today,” said Rea, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track after completing 48 laps.

Davies’ lap demoted Voltcom Suzuki’s Eugene Lavery to fourth after he was usurped by the Red Devils Aprilia rider Toni Elias, who put in a late burst to beat the second Ducati of Davide Giughliano. The Roman stayed ahead of Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes who was fast this morning but did a lot of development work in the afternoon.

The young British rider, who was working on engine braking strategy, walked away from a crash with half an hour to go. The reigning British Superbike Champion ended his day with a 1’47.628 which was set in the morning and more than half a second better than his previous best at the weekend.

The Aprilia pairing of Sylvain Guintoli and Marco Melandri stayed ahead of double podium man Chaz Davies in eighth place while a fairly unhappy Leon Haslam sat in ninth after setting his best time of the weekend, one place ahead of Evo challengers Nico Canepa and Leon Camier.

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