Jonathan Rea ‘felt great straight away, happy with the progress’ at Jerez

Jonathan Rea built on an impressive performance at Jerez last November, finishing second behind Nicolo Bulega at the Jerez WorldSBK test.

The former Kawasaki rider is aboard an R1 for the first time in his career but the transition has appeared seamless for Rea.

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Although he was over half a second back from Bulega, Rea was a clear second and led Yamaha’s charge ahead of another two day test at Portimao in a few days.

“My feelings with the R1 are really good,” Rea revealed to WorldSBK.com. “Right from the first time I rode the bike back in November last year, I felt comfortable. 

“I could feel the strengths of the bike and some of the areas we needed to work on. This test was more a case of picking up where we left it last November, trying a lot of test items.

“I think we struggled to make so much progress on Day 1 because we were trying so many items on some key areas, but last night, when the guys sat down, they were able to go through all the data and really understood the way forward.

“This morning, I felt great straight away. We’ve done a lot of positive laps, we’ve learnt a lot, and we’re happy with the progress and the findings we have to move onto Portugal.”

Rea hinted at a clear direction already being found, but that testing is always important as it helps to provide ‘concise’ feedback.

“There’s a clear direction that I like, which is good,” added Rea. “Yamaha have been working really hard behind closed doors to move the package forwards and I feel really grateful to be part of that.

“Sometimes it’s hard being a rider because you have to do a lot of laps out there, but you have to be at a very exact rhythm and get really clear and concise feedback.

“These are hard parts we’ll probably start the year with and become our base setup, so feedback’s important.

“Today, I tried my best to give really accurate information because Portimao will be a track we re-confirm some items, re-test some items but we have to be very clear about the package we’ll go to Australia with.”