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Aragon WorldSBK test: Rea fast but ZX-10R 'not ready for these laptimes'

On a day when Jonathan Rea (KRT) got to see one of the new bikes that will be ranged against his partly- new bike in 2019 - the Ducati V4R - he was still fastest of all with a stunning 1’49.668 lap, and not the only lap he set under the 1’50 mark.

His upgraded ZX-10RR has mainly engine changes compared to 2018, with lighter valve train components and 600 extra revs as a stock machine, designed in to counterbalance the loss of revs Kawasaki experienced by regulation in 2018.

So far, so good, even if Rea does not feel full confidence quite yet. “Of course, with a new bike you have to understand everything,” Rea told bikesportnews.com. “It is a different engine spec. From the chassis point of view we back-to-backed the 2018 and 2019 bikes and I felt good with the ’19, and was faster with the ’19 but we still need some work to feel the same confidence level I had with last year’s bike. So, step-by-step and tomorrow we are going to play around with chassis geometry, step-by-step.”

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Rea’s pace was so fast some may have thought he had gone for a Q tyre just to see how fast it would go, but not a bit of it.

“There were a few 1’49s, which was fast,” said Rea. “I did not use a Q, of course not; it was a normal race tyre. It is the first day of winter tests - it is not about time attack mode. Of course, you have to ride fast to understand the bike. Otherwise you are setting the bike up for a slow lap time.”

Braking is one area where Rea has noticed an immediate difference. “The engine spec is quite different which means that the braking potential is a little bit better, which means I am braking a little bit later,” said Rea.

“The bike is wanting me to do that, but then I am putting the bike in crisis. It is not ready for this lap time. It is giving me confidence to do it but I don’t feel great on the bike. Especially in corner entry we are putting the front too much in crisis. So we will play around with our chassis balance tomorrow and reconfirm other items. The track was OK, there was not a lot of rubber down this morning but the track was faster than race weekend.”

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