The six-time world champion, who switched from Kawasaki green to Yamaha blue this year, finished second at Jerez on the second day of practice and was close to breaking his 2019 personal record time.
Nicola Brega broke his own existing record and the Italian was almost unstoppable as he beat Rea's existing record by four-tenths around the Spanish circuit, but it was not until the Northern Irishman himself broke it. It was 1/10.
And after completing 78 laps in Jerez, Rea admitted he is confident in what Yamaha has given him and teammate Andrea Locatelli as he prepares to head to Portimao for next week's test. Ta.
“I'm clear about the direction I like and that's a good thing. Yamaha has been working hard behind closed doors to move the package forward and I'm really grateful to be a part of it,” said Rea at World Super. said on the bike's website.
Rea and Locatelli have new swingarms at their disposal this week, and although the former did not elaborate on what exactly it is, he expects it to be effective in the first round at Phillip Island. he is sure.
“Being a rider can be tough at times because you have to do a lot of laps, but you also have to ride in a very precise rhythm and get very clear and concise feedback. “Feedback is important as it will be the difficult part to start the year and will be our basic setup,” he added.
“Today I did my best to provide really accurate information. Portimao is going to be a track where we double check some items and retest some items, but for the trip to Australia We need to be very clear about the packaging.”
“The R1 feels really good. I felt comfortable from the first time I rode the bike last November. I could feel the strengths of the bike and some of the areas I needed to work on.
“This test was a pick-up from where we left off last November and tried a lot of test items. I think we were struggling to make as much progress as we could, but last night when the guys sat down we were able to look at all the data and really understand where we're going.
“I felt good right away this morning. We put in a lot of positive laps, learned a lot and are happy with our progress and discoveries heading into Portugal.”