World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea regroups after crash to throw down gauntlet at Phillip Island

Jonathan Rea shrugged off a crash on the second and final day of the Phillip Island test to set the standard ahead of this weekend’s opening round of the World Superbike Championship in Australia.
By Kyle White
Published 25th Feb 2020, 10:08 BST
Updated 25th Feb 2020, 22:35 BST
Jonathan Rea topped the times on the second and final day of the Phillip Island test in Australia on his Kawasaki ZX-10RR.Jonathan Rea topped the times on the second and final day of the Phillip Island test in Australia on his Kawasaki ZX-10RR.
Jonathan Rea topped the times on the second and final day of the Phillip Island test in Australia on his Kawasaki ZX-10RR.

The Kawasaki Racing Team rider was among a number of fallers at Turn 4 on Tuesday, but Rea dusted himself off and posted the quickest lap in 1m 30.448s to narrowly head off Frenchman Loris Baz (Ten Kate Yamaha) by only 0.078s.

Tom Sykes continued his impressive form for the BMW Motorrad team as he slotted into third on the combined times, a mere 0.120s behind Rea. The top six was completed by Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha), Leon Haslam (Team HRC) and championship rookie Scott Redding (Aruba.it Ducati) as four-tenths-of-a-second covered the first half-dozen on the time sheets.

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Five-time champion Rea said: “It has been a positive test all-in-all. Even though some sessions were hindered a bit by the weather, we have been able to confirm a lot of items from the balance side, to try to get the bike to turn more naturally. That was out focus coming here, knowing what we knew from last year.

Northern Ireland's Jonathan Rea is bidding for his sixth World Superbike title in 2020.Northern Ireland's Jonathan Rea is bidding for his sixth World Superbike title in 2020.
Northern Ireland's Jonathan Rea is bidding for his sixth World Superbike title in 2020.

“I felt good with the bike and tested two different front tyres. Both gave good but different sensations so it is more about understanding which one we go towards the weekend with. You never really know in this race.

“We have done race distance on all the tyres we used and I feel fast and consistent with all. But you never really know until the race,” added the 33-year-old.

“It is clear at this track that you can go all out and be really fast but you tend to run into issues at the end of the race. So it is more about trying to make your consistent rhythm easy and I feel like we have a bike that is quite user-friendly. That is positive to go into Friday with.”

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Eugene Laverty was ninth fastest as he prepares to make his race debut for the factory BMW squad this weekend, with 2019 championship runner-up Alvaro Bautista in 10th (Team HRC) ahead of Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Ducati).

Related topics:Jonathan ReaAustraliaEugene Laverty