English
Italiano
The fact that Kawasaki would, once again, be the bike to beat this season was probably clear to most, but the test day at Motorland Aragon has further confirmed this. The two green bikes closed one-two in the standings, but while Jonathan Rea has generally taken the lead in most of the sessions so far, today it was Tom Sykes to top the timesheets. The former world champion had far from an easy weekend, and it appears he's found the answers he was looking for during the test.
“I did not use a qualifying tyre today - explains #66 - and that is what makes me happy. The standard race tyres performed incredibly and the bike was working nicely. I am still feeling a bit second hand, although I had a slight improvement today on my stomach problems. It is amazing how even with such a small improvement I feel night and day better, physically, on the bike today."
So a day that has put the smile back on Tom's face, and one that saw a great deal of work completed: “We made so many small changes to the bike, working hard with Showa, and I am happy with the progress. We are always learning, always improving. Today the track was in great condition and the Ninja ZX-10RR was working really consistently. It puts a bit of a smile on the end of a difficult weekend.”
Jonathan Rea is not yet over the physical problems that limited him over the race weekend, in fact they appeared worse during testing: “I do not feel any better than yesterday, to be honest I feel horrible. We did not try a Q tyre today but used the SC0 because it was hotter than it was over race weekend. We tested what we needed to test. Particularly some front suspension settings, which brought some positives and some negatives, and some new front tyres for Pirelli which we expect to be coming to the next races."
Overall the Northern Irishman had a positive day, despite it all: "I was not up for doing too many laps today but my pace was good. I don’t think I even did one lap in the 1’51s. Our package is pretty good because if I want to go out and push for a lap time I can make it happen and if I want to do a long run I can make it happen, and be consistent."
