SBK, Redding: "Cremona? It's not that narrow. There are several spots for overtaking."

Scott Redding's first test day in Cremona ended with the 5th fastest time. Despite the rain that fell on the track in Lombardy in the afternoon, the British rider was able to begin to get a feel for the new addition to the Superbike calendar, completing about 20 laps with the Bonovo Action team's BMW.

"The track isn't that bad," Scott said, giving his impressions of the track. "There are some areas that, as I was walking around the track, I thought would be a bit more fluid, but they were instead a bit bit more technical, and other areas that, as I was walking around, seemed slow and turned out to be faster than I expected, and that was quite nice. I also like the fact that the circuit offers different surfaces. It's cool. There are also still mounds in some areas, and I find that a nice thing, because they give character, in my opinion. Learning the track wasn't that difficult. Some of the corners are more complex to deal with correctly, because there's not much around there. Besides the braking markers, there are no boards or grandstands. I really liked the last sector, though. I didn't do that many laps today to be honest, but I think the circuit is pretty okay."

The track, which has often been the subject of criticism in recent months, has been called a very narrow track by many. But the BMW rider doesn't particularly agree.

"Yes, the track is narrow in some spots, but there are others where it's quite wide and, to be realistic, I think there are about six spots along the track where you can overtake. So, quite a few," he noted. "I didn' t find the track particularly narrow. Maybe turns two and three, but then it widens out again. If you come here after a track like Barcelona then, yes, it's small. But, compared to one like Navarra, it's normal."

Regarding what would change ahead of the September Round, Redding added, "The corners are fine. I had a look outside, and the secondary roads are terrible. When it rains, there's a lot of mud there. But I hope this won't be a problem for me. Yesterday, there were a lot of puddles in the gravel, which isn't good when you fall, and it wasn't great that there was water coming back up between turns five and six. In my opinion, some of the rin-off areas are a bit borderline, but I hope they're safe enough with air fences."

Speaking about the work carried out today, the 31-year-old rider admitted that he focused more on studying the track than on the continuation of the season.

"Honestly, we didn't have much to test. We had some elements that I wanted to reconfirm with the set-up and the electronics, but  we had some problems with the bike today, and that's why I didn't ride much," he explained. "It would've been the same thing anyway, because we came here just to learn the circuit, and if the weather and time allowed us, to validate some things we had already tried out."