Jonathan Rea closed to within 1.8s of the ultimate pace on the final day of testing at Aragon, a welcome confidence boost ahead of his probable debut at Misano next weekend. The Ulsterman admitted he wasn’t paying huge attention to the stopwatch but took encouragement from the fact his best lap came at the end of a run, suggesting there is further room for improvement.
“I’m happy with the test we did here in Aragon. Now we’re not looking at the lap times so much, but the gap to the front which is decreasing every test, so I’m happy with that. Yesterday we did a lot of work with the base setting and we confirmed that this morning. I’m still not completely happy finishing the corner, but this afternoon I did a long run and my fastest lap came at the end, so I need to push these tyres much harder and it’s a question of trust. It’s been a good opportunity to test before the race; the Repsol Honda Team gave me the best opportunity, knowing the bike and the circuit and I am constantly learning. Now I’m going to Germany to race in Superbikes this weekend, so it will be a busy period for me but I will try to take advantage of it and enjoy it as much as I can”.
Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa tried out a new exhaust and a modified rear shock in his pursuit of more grip and was reasonably happy with their performance.
“Today I tested a new exhaust, just to see if we can get a better drivability from the engine and we found some positives that can help us in the next races. We also tried a different rear shock to get more grip. In general it’s been a positive test, so I’m happy about the work we did and now we are focusing on the next races, where we will try to maintain the same level. We were not looking for a lap time here, but on working on improving the bike. It’s been good to be back testing after the last two good races in Indy and Brno and now it’s time to recover some energy to go to Misano and push again to the maximum”.
