SBK, Rea: "We don't know how competitive we are"

The tests at Phillip Island today were important in terms of defining setting for Saturday and Sunday's races, but once again, the strange weather conditioned the work of riders and mechanics alike.

Nevertheless, team Kawasaki Provec can count on two British aces who are not intimidated by the wind and rain and, particularly the current world champ, setting the second fastest time, has proved to be competitive in all conditions “today was difficult for everyone, because the weather conditions were so unstable -reveals Johnny Rea- so we couldn't complete many timed laps. We made some laps in the dry later in the afternoon but the strong wind disturbed us and we had to be careful. The bike set-up was good though and despite the conditions, my feeling on the ZX10RR was also good”.

The bike features some new elements in accordance with the technical regulation and Johnny immediately felt the difference with respect to the old model: “the balance of the bike is quite similar - clarifies Rea- we have improved the engine and the electronic management; step by step we are refining our technical package and now have a good idea of where to start. The balance of the bike was not perfect but we've quickly intervened. We don't know exactly how competitive we are because we haven't carried out a race simulation. We'll probably carry out a long run tomorrow ”.

Tom Sykes concluded his session in sixth place but the English rider was taking things fairly easy: “the weather was unpredictable today, I was pretty relaxed - reveals Tom- we had a long list of things to do and we've done a few of them. We worked on the new elements of our ZX10RR and hope that the weather is better tomorrow; it was horrible riding today, the strong wind made it hard to change direction and it was quite difficult to manage the bike”.

Sykes too thinks the updated bike still needs some improvement, and believes his rivals' bikes are now at the same level of competitiveness: “we've introduced the RR version of the ZX10 and have reached a good level of preparation, having worked over the winter. Our bike is very fast but it's not unbeatable in terms of top speed. The Ducati too, for example, is at our level now, this is what we've improved the bike in all areas, making it more effective through each sector of the track”.