WorldSBK king Jonathan Rea is relishing the prospect of testing at the Barcelona circuit on Monday instead of travelling to Portimao with the rest of the field.
Rea was supposed to be finished his European test schedule by now, but after losing time to the rain at Jerez on Wednesday here will be one more Euro test, arranged at the last minute. On the doorstep of his own KRT squad, in Barcelona, at a GP venue that will be a new venue for WorldSBK in 2020.
“I am really excited about that test because I have never been and it will give is a step, at least a step, ahead when we go back in the summer to test there,” Rea told bikesportnews.com.
“The weather in Barcelona looks quite good for Monday – we should see 15°C and sun. I hope to get some meaningful testing done.”
The five-time champion Rea was expecting to have nothing to do yesterday at the Jerez tests, before the weather improved enough to allow him to ride after all and set the fastest time of all.
“I had booked a five o’clock flight from Malaga,” he stated. “The forecast looked like it was going to be really bad. Then we saw that it was clearing in the morning and we were expecting rain about four o’clock. We were just keeping an eye on the track drying out to be anything meaningful.”
Despite the track surface not being as good as it could have been, with damp patches still around even at its driest, Rea opted to ride after all, having missed out on all of the first day’s wet weather.
“We were able to understand the bike in the conditions. The track was compromised quite a lot because there were damp patches in critical areas. So you had to really compromise your optimum line but that was good to understand that and get a bit of a flow going.
We were able to confirm something on the front of the bike, ride height wise, with the target to turn a little bit better. We found a positive with that but we need to reconfirm that with another track. Work to do in Montmelo to confirm that.”
Rea did 19 laps and was still be fastest on the final day, although there were some very fast video laps on Tuesday. “I have good experience with the bike, and the biggest thing was that I expected to arrive a lot faster but the problem was that the track condition was so critical.
"When I entered the track I could be fast but you had to take a lot of risk. Right at the end, when I was consistent in a 1’41 low, let’s say the track was more acceptable, but still not perfect. I have a lot of experience.”
