The six-time world champion returned to action for the first time in 2024, setting the second-fastest time overall after a two-day stint, and even after a nine-year shock departure from Kawasaki, Rei continued to master the Pata Yamaha. Ta.
Rea was just one-tenth of a second off his 2019 lap record best time of 1 minute 38.345 seconds, which was on par with Superbike rookie and reigning World Supersport Champion Nicolo Brega’s lap record pace. It was 0.5 seconds short. Aruba.it Ducati’s time on Thursday was 1 minute 37.809 seconds.
There will be another two days of testing in Portimao, Portugal on Monday and Tuesday, but Rea, who celebrates his 37th birthday next Friday, is already in race mode after an encouraging race simulation on his YZF-R1. . “A smile on the face.”
The Ballyclare man is reinvigorated after his move to Yamaha’s factory team as Rea aims for a seventh world title. It was a move that the 119-race winner felt was necessary to challenge the dominance of serial world champion Alvaro Bautista and Ducati.
“I worked on the race simulation before lunch (Thursday) just to understand how the bike behaves,” Ray said.
“Every day is a learning day and riding long distances has really helped me understand the bike. Bikes only have a limited amount of electronic controls, so during a race simulation, the rider has no control over the bike. You will need to enter a lot of information on how to make the changes.
“So everything is new, the switches and buttons are new, so it was important to understand what those changes would allow the bike to do and how that would affect lap times.
“We were very stable on that run, but it highlighted some things that we can still improve on.
“I finished with a smile on my face because I felt like it was a very competitive race. It makes me feel ready to race.”
While Rea may already be relishing the prospect of making his racing debut with Yamaha at Australia’s Phillip Island next month, he points out that there is always room for progress with each lap completed during the winter test program.
“I think you can always improve with more laps and more settings,” he said.
“There are still some tests to pass in Portimao, but it’s just about getting more laps, understanding how the changes affect the bike, me learning about it and the mechanics learning about me. It will be.
“But the package has worked really well so far and the staff are great. I’ve built a real bond with everyone, so I hope we can continue that.”
Champion Bautista was languishing in 16th place on the Aruba.it Ducati at the end of the Jerez test.
The Spaniard is still feeling the effects of a neck injury sustained during a testing accident in Jerez at the end of the 2023 season, and was unable to undertake his normal training program over the winter.
Turkey’s Toprak Razgatlioglu, who left the Pata Yamaha team to join BMW, finished fourth on the M1000RR.
The first leg of the championship will be held in Australia from February 23rd to 25th.