Rea, Bautista and Petrucci all under race lap record at Aragon test

The six-time WorldSBK champion had only one day of testing left from his 2023 allocation, but used it well in order to set a time of 1:49.101s. 

With Alex Lowes focusing on next season, Rea was keen to find a better feeling ahead of the final four rounds this season, the first of which is next weekend at Magny-Cours. 

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"It has been a positive day and I really enjoyed riding the bike again, especially after a long time away," said Rea. 

"I was surprised how fast I was able to be on the first lap, already inside the 1’50 bracket. That set the tone for the rest of the test as we were able to try some things that we will see for sure in the Motorland Round; some fine tuning. 

"More or less this day was geared towards a performance test, trying to understand our potential. 

"We have been consistently fast with race tyres and also at the end we tried a qualifying tyre. We were quite competitive with our lap times today, both on race rubber and qualifying rubber. 

"I leave the test with optimism that we can have a really positive weekend in Magny-Cours. 

"Thanks to the team for all the effort to get here during the summer and it will set us at a good rhythm for the rest of the year."

Second was Bautista who set an identical time to fellow Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci. Both riders were just over a tenth down on Rea although they also finished under the race lap record. 

Petrucci ended the morning session top with a time of 1:49.168s, which remained his best lap time from the test. 

For Bautista, the series leader suffered a late fall at turn 14 but was unhurt from the accident.