Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea was left feeling frustrated after electrical problems hampered his World Superbike free practice sessions at Portimao today. Even with a few issues the Northern Irishman did set the fastest time in this afternoon’s opening qualifying session to take provisional pole position.

Rea clocked his fastest time of 1’43.551, ahead of Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty and Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes who complete the provisional front row. The Isle of Man resident experience many issues with his bike, but was fortunate he was able to ride some fast lap times during the final practice session of the day. Rea also used today to test out some new tyres, and hopes to improve again for Superpole tomorrow.

“It was quite a frustrating day as we had loads and loads of problems, but the good thing is that it didn’t stand in the way of a good run at the end. So it’s mixed emotions really, because although my guys worked really quickly to resolve the problems, it was frustrating that we’re still having issues on the electronics side,” said Rea.

“I’m enjoying riding here and although our bike has improved a lot, it feels like the circuit is a little bit slower. It’s a mix of a lack of rubber and how bumpy it’s got in the last year. It’s hard to make a perfect set up and it needs a lot of rider input and thinking outside the box to make the bike work in the fast bumpy areas.

“But for day one we’ve gained a lot of data, especially in the engine braking area, and we’ve made better inroads than we did on day one at Donington. I just hope that tomorrow we can steer clear of any little gremlins and work on a race tyre. I tried three different tyres today and each one has positives and negatives, so we need to evaluate them some more tomorrow to make a choice.”