British rider Jonathan Rea made his intentions clear for the forthcoming World Superbike season by setting the fastest lap in three days of testing at the Portimao circuit in Portugal. Rea spent each session close to the top of the leader board with his best lap on a qualifying tire quicker than the previous circuit best lap set by Ben Spies last October.
As Day 3 concluded, Hannspree Ten Kate Honda's Jonthan Rea set the fastest lap at Portimao.
During 2009 Rea established himself as a front-runner by winning two races, but with a strong season of winter development on his Hannspree Ten Kate
Honda could be one of the title favorites for 2010. He said: “I didn’t want to be going too much faster than I had to today and I would have like to have told you that we didn’t use a qualifier but we did. I didn’t actually want to use a Qualifying tire and I honestly feel I could have improved if I’d stayed out on my race tire. As I came into the pits I was shaking my head but the team wanted to put a qualifier in anyway. The bike is good now, we’ve tried a new specification rear shock and front fork. The shock has different character and different damping spec to try and get more grip and we’ve also been working on balance of bike and electronics.”
Rea was pushed all the way by son of Rocket Ron Haslam, Leon riding the factory Alstare
Suzuki. Ever since Haslam rode the Suzuki for the first time he has been competitive and in Portimao was no exception.
“As a package I clicked with the Suzuki straight away. The year I had with Stiggy Honda last season meant that I had to push hard and I could because the set-up allowed me to do that. I continued to ride the same way when I got on the Suzuki and it seems that I now have the package to get results.”
Althea Racing's Shane Byrne was three-tenths of a second off of the pace set by the second-quickest rider, Leon Haslam.
In what was an unprecedented day for British riders Shane Byrne and Cal Crutchlow occupied the next two places with former MotoGP man James Toseland in sixth. Byrne riding his Altea Ducati for the first time picked up where he left off at the final race of the year with an impressive time to finish ahead of the two factory Xerox
Ducati’s of Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio.
In what was their first test since Portimao in October, Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki Haga never looked like they would run at the front despite their pace during 2009. With minimal new parts to test and a drastically revised team structure following the departure of long time team boss Davide Tardozzi to
BMW, the Ducati pairing finished down in fifth and eighth place.
The BMW and Kawasaki teams both expected to make a step closer to the front running teams but will leave Portimao disappointed after three difficult days of testing. Corser was the best placed in 13th on the BMW with Chris Vermeulen and Tom Sykes in 13th and 14th onboard their
ZX-10Rs and Ruben Xaus in 15th riding the BMW after a spectacular final day crash.
Roger Lee Hayden completed a massive 164 laps of the 2.85 mile circuit and dropped his lap time significantly but still finished 19th out of 20 riders onboard his privateer Pedercini Kawasaki.
BMW, Xerox Ducati, Aprilia and Althea Ducati now head to Valencia in Spain for two further days of testing on Wednesday and Thursday. The next and final official test takes place at Phillip Island in Australia on 21st and 22nd of February.
Chris Vermeulen posted his fastest lap time on Day 3 on the Kawasaki ZX-10R.
1. Jonathan Rea (Honda) 1:42.270
2. Leon Haslam (Suzuki) 1:42.557
3. Shane Byrne (Ducati) 1:42.877
4. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) 1:43.137
5. Cal Crutchlow (
Yamaha) 1:43.141
6. James Toseland (Yamaha) 1:43.157
7. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) 1:43.417
8. Max Neukirchner (Honda) 1:43.471
9. Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki) 1:43.508
10. Max Biaggi (Aprilia) 1:43.515
11. Carlos Checa (Ducati) 1:43.629
12. Leon Camier (Aprilia) 1:43.749
13. Troy Corser (BMW) 1:43.931
14. Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki) 1:44.108
15. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 1:44.437
16. Ruben Xaus (BMW) 1:44.925
17. Broc Parkes (Honda) 1:45.038
18. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Honda) 1:45.348
19. Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki) 1:46.990
Supersport Day 3 Results:
1. Eugene Laverty (Honda)1:45.104
2. Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki) 1:45.394
3. Michele Pirro (Honda) 1:45.671
4. Miguel Praia (Honda) 1:46.478
5. Chaz Davies (Triumph) 1:46.728
6. Fabien Foret (Kawasaki) 1:46.836
7. David Salom (Triumph) 1:47.054
8. Katsuaki Fujiwara (Kawasaki) 1:47.300
9. Jason DiSalvo (Triumph) 1:47.773
10. Danilo Dell'Omo (Honda) 1:48.098
11. Alexander Lundh (Honda) 1:49.332
12. Sebastien Charpentier (Triumph) 1:49.452
13. Paola Cazzola (Honda) 1:49.553
14. Bastien Chesaux (Yamaha) 1:49.627
