Rea suffers another turn four crash but ‘pace where it needs to be for podium’

Jonathan Rea feels he has the pace to fight for a podium during this weekend’s WorldSBK season-opener at Phillip Island, despite a second fall at turn four in as many days hindering his race simulation.

Robert Jones

21 Feb 2023

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki WorldSBK Phillip Island 2023

Rea, who finished the final pre-season WorldSBK test in fourth place overall, suffered his second fall of the test at turn four during lap 14 of his race run.

The six-time Superbike champion finished FP2 in sixth place but managed to remain inside the top four on combined times, thanks to a lap he set during Tuesday’s FP1 session.

Like Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista on day one, Rea’s start to the test was affected by a fall shortly after fitting a brand new hard tyre.

However, the Kawasaki rider went down again on day two at ‘Miller corner’, this time during a crucial race run.

But while Rea was unable to finish his feature race simulation, the Kawasaki rider was pleased with the overall performance after feeling as though enough pace was shown to put him in contention this weekend.

"Today we tried a 2022 spec bike versus the 2023 spec bike in the afternoon session," said Rea. "There are positives and negatives with both but I preferred to stick with the 2023 bike. Unfortunately, doing a race simulation, on about lap 14, I got caught out in Turn Four.

"The wind was very gusty and it was coming in strongly from the sea, and I was pushing at my limit - clearly.

"I had very positive sensations during that long run and I was able to stay in the 1’31 laps times. That pace is where I need to be to fight for the podium.

Jonathan Rea Australian WorldSBK. 20 February

"After that we tried the SC0 rear tyre because Pirelli asked me to do a longer run to evaluate how it would perform in the Superpole race. Our tyre performance was good and from an electronics point of view I am really happy with the steps we have made inside the team."

After struggling with bumps around the Phillip Island circuit on day one, Rea alluded to steps forward being made which allowed him to be more comfortable aboard his ZX-10RR.

Rea added: "I am more satisfied with the bike than yesterday. Clearly there is potential with the new bike and we have to keep working to extract that potential.

"We have made a step compared to last year, I feel. For race weekend, I feel we can fight for the podium."