Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea had to contend with rear grip and stability issues during the first day of World Superbike free practice at Phillip Island but thinks it could be just down to a new engine.
The Isle of Man resident also worked on engine-braking strategies on his way to a fastest lap of 1’31.436 - good enough for fifth - and says he will spend some more time evaluating Pirelli larger-profile tyre tomorrow (click here for details).
“We continued with our testing programme from earlier this week when we completed a race distance on the C-spec tyre. We also wanted to try the bigger Pirelli tyre but we still need to do a bit more time on that. It was harder for me to do the lap time but it might be good for the end of the race, so we’ll have to see. We have also refined our engine-braking strategies and I’m quite happy with that,” said Rea.
“I think the grip has dropped a little today and I experienced a bit of instability from the rear on corner exit so we need to look at that. It might be the new engine that we put in for the start of the season or the lack of grip, but it occurs in quite a few areas. It’s a shame we missed the first session this morning but we’ll do some more time on the big tyre tomorrow morning and also try Pirelli’s soft option to see if that is a potential race tyre, too.
“The wind changed a lot today and that made my problems in the last corner vanish because it really helped me to turn, but it also made it harder to get into turn one. Windy conditions here really do play with the set-up of the bike so we need to pay attention to that come raceday.”
