Jonathan Rea: Yamaha “really difficult to ride”, “pace is nowhere” at Spanish WorldSBK

Despite strong rides in each of the last three WorldSBK rounds, Jonathan Rea has got off to a tough start at the final round of the season in Jerez.

Rea was eighth-fastest in FP1 and ninth in FP2, but neither result filled the Northern Irishman with much confidence.

The six-time World Superbike Champion felt he was at a disadvantage to some of his rivals in Jerez because Yamaha didn’t test there in the summer, and identified front grip and confidence as key areas to improve for the rest of the weekend.

“A difficult day, to be honest,” Jonathan Rea summarised, speaking to WorldSBK.com after FP2 in Jerez.

“I felt like we needed to arrive here and pick up on the feeling from Estoril, Aragon, and Magny-Cours. But, in reality, I found a bike that was really difficult to ride. 

“We really got penalised not coming here in the summer to test like the rest of our rivals. 

“I’ve been struggling with front grip and confidence to really stop the bike in the last part of the corner. So, today was like a real setup day, trying to understand which direction to take for tomorrow. 

“Tomorrow morning [FP3] is the last chance to put everything together, hopefully [...] the bike’s good, acceptable to ride. 

“The grip level is poor for everybody and I think we’re getting penalised from that.”

A lack of positive feeling has led to a lack of pace for Rea.

“My pace is nowhere right now,” he said. “I haven’t strung laps together.”

He added: “Race 1 will be important to try and get to the end with good data to understand, to try and improve the bike for Sunday. 

“I think for the time attack in Superpole we can be okay because it’s just one lap, just hit all my marks. But we have some work to do to be competitive over race distance.”

Rea came into the weekend dreaming of a podium to end his illustrious full-time WorldSBK career, but he ended Friday feeling like even a top-10 would be difficult to achieve.

“Honestly, right now we’re nowhere,” he said. “We need to really improve to fight inside the top-10, even. 

“I do think it’s just a combination of bad feeling and not a great setup on the bike – but it doesn’t take much to put that bike in the window. 

“So, the guys are working really hard now in the garage. We made a small mistake in the wrong direction for Race 2 in Estoril – it put the bike out of the window, it didn’t have grip – so we know that it’s sensitive. 

“It’s only the right little massage and tweak that the bike needs to put it there. I have great people around me, hopefully we can make the right step.”