Reigning WorldSBK Champion Jonathan Rea had to twice climb out of his sickbed for the two-day Misano WorldSBK test but managed to make some significant changes to his ZX-10RR during limited dry track time.

Rain halted both mornings in Italy but with some decent dry track time yesterday, Rea was able to put in some decent laps after changing his entire seating position on the big Kawasaki to work alongside alterations in weight distribution, balance and also some new chassis items.

“We got a lot done in the afternoon yesterday. I was in my bed until lunchtime on Wednesday because I have had such a bad flu, but in the morning I felt a little better,” said Rea.

“So the morning curveballs with the weather each day kind of helped me, in a way. We worked on a different balance of the bike and weight distribution, and also with some tyres from Pirelli.

We had different front fork settings but the biggest thing we did was change my position on the bike. Late in the afternoon I had a very positive feeling from that.

“This test was the perfect opportunity to do that kind of thing because these big items we cannot really test during race weekends. It was a very positive test and I feel good about it.”