Reigning WorldSBK king Jonathan Rea is encouraged by an improvement in the straight-line speed of the 2021 Kawasaki ZX-10RR which contributed to a lap-time of 1’41.472 at Portimao today.

Rea completed 48 laps on the bike, which has a new aero-tested seat unit, and worked mainly on setup and gearbo ratios.

“It has been a positive test because looking at the weather forecast before we arrived we were not sure how much track time we were going to get. But we did 48 laps today,” said Rea.

“I felt good with the bike and I was immediately quite fast. The Portimao circuit did a good job of the new asphalt as well. I was able to try that out but more importantly we focused on the bike set-up and confirming some major items that we will start the season with.

“We played around with gearbox ratios and final gearings and worked with electronic strategies for managing the power. I feel quite comfortable with that now and we were able to achieve very good lap times. The latest seat unit arrived so we focused on the aerodynamics of the bike, getting a comfortable riding position.

‘With the new seat unit, and the wind tunnels in the rear of it, we were able to get some really good info. We did some back-to-back testing with the old fairing and the new fairing, in addition to the new seat unit.

“We were able to see that the 2021 version had some extra speed in a straight line, which was quite encouraging. Now we can pack up happy and healthy and move on.”