Rea ends Jerez World Superbike test fastest

Unofficial times from day two of the Jerez World Superbike test

Jonathan Rea has completed the Jerez World Superbike test fastest for Kawasaki, while Stefan Bradl tops the overall times on testing duty for HRC’s MotoGP squad.

The reigning World Superbike champion traded top times with day one’s timesheet-topper Alex Lowes for the production bikes at the Spanish track who were joined by Bradl and Honda’s MotoGP test team.

Bradl ultimately took top spot with 1m 39.152s but Rea impressed by going just 0.008s off the German rider and on lap record pace in warm and sunny conditions at the recently-resurfaced Jerez track.

Having tested a range of 2019-specificaiton parts on his new Kawasaki ZX-10RR, Rea rounded out his test early having completed his full 66-lap programme.

Lowes produced over 100 laps for Pata Yamaha to take third on the overall times with Leon Haslam on the factory Kawasaki slotting into fourth place.

Alvaro Bautista led the Aruba.it Racing Ducati test programme on Thursday with Chaz Davies missing the majority of the track action with a back injury following a heavy fall at Turn 5 on day one. Davies was still able to complete 18 laps, and take 11th place on the overall times, with Bautista in fifth place with a best effort of 1m 39.620s having completed 59 laps on the new V4 R.

Kawasaki Puccetti’s Toprak Razgatlioglu continued to impress at the pre-season test with sixth place ahead of GRT Yamaha’s Sandro Cortese and Pata Yamaha’s Michael van der Mark, with Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Ducati) rounding out the top ten.

With Davies 11th on the times, Leandro Mercado slotted into 12th with Eugene Laverty upping his pace on his second day with Team Go Eleven Ducati with a best lap of 1m 40.879s to edge ahead of Jordi Torres on the Team Pedercini Kawasaki.

BMW WorldSBK Team duo Tom Sykes and Markus Reiterberger were fitted with timing transponders for the final hour of the second day to see the pair set representative lap times late on. Sykes produced a 1m 41.206s, fractionally ahead of his German team-mate with a 1m 41.231s. Alessandro Delbianco on the Althea Mie Honda rounded out the Superbike contenders in 17th.

The factory Moriwaki-Althea Honda squad were the only full-time team absent from the World Superbike test.