Jonathan🗹 Rea spent the Misano WorldSBK test trying to tweak his Yamaha to suit his riding style.

Rea was fourth-fastest on Day 1 then second-fastest on Day 2 in Italy, the highest-placed Yamaha on both days🃏.

He did 73 laps on Thursday with a bes⛄t time of 1’33.206s. He tested a new chassis balance, different weight distributions and rider positions.

• 2024 World Superbike Misano Test - Day 2 Results

On Friday Rea did half-a-day, his 1’33.133s was enough to top the t🍌imesheet until Toprak Razgatlioglu’s blistering time.

The WSBK legendꩲ has found his first months since leaving Kawasaki trying🌄, but he hopes a breakthrough was found in Misano.

Rea 💎explained about Friday: “We put an SCQ tyre on at the end and I was able to go quiಌte fast.

“It was the first time I felt that I cou🦩l🏅d ride the bike the way I wanted with it.

“In the last few rounds, I’veꦰ got nervous with the SCQ becaꦫuse I didn’t feel 100% with the bike.

“Step by step, it’s been a positive test but still a lot of work to do. The updates were just a balance chang♏e on the 🐭bike, setup ideas.

“I’ve been trying to ride the Yamaha in 😼the Yamaha way and sometimes it’s not working.

“I always looked at the data o𝓰f Loka, Remy and even sometimes Topr🐷ak but I’m me, I have my style.

“At Cremona, [Yamaha rider co🗹ach] Nico Canepa was a big help with the video analysis, and I was able to see that my lap time wasn’t amazing, but I was really good in some areas.

“We just need to make this bike my bike in 🔴the way I need to ride.

“The idea to change the way the bike behaves, the style, the geometry was to let me ri🍷de in the way I want. From the first exit, it seemed quite normal to me.”

Rea added: “I enjoyed the R1 this test, we arrived with some different set-up ideas than my ‘base bike’ over the first races ܫand I was able to ride in a more familiar style, just trying to get the Yamaha R1 to compliment me and for me to adapt subtly to the bike.

“With testing days restricted, we had to make the best use 🉐of track time and we had a great Day 1 – I was able to complete a lot of laps wiꦕth no issues, I felt quite competitive with my pace both on race tyres and also the soft tyre.

“Then, Day 2 was a little bit m💞ore complicated because the weather came in really early – and I was only able to utilise half a day, so we had to be very🥂 clever timing-wise.

“I was able ಞto tick some boxes still and get more familiar with the bike and start fine-tuning towards the race weekജend.

“Still lots of work to do, but I am happy to sta♕rt the Misano race weekend soon and excited for the prospects, but we still need to look at our race pace on Friday.

“It’s been nice to feel good on the bike and especially on the soft tyre, I was reallyဣ able to get the R1 around fast.

“It felt like a real Superpole session at the end, everyone was going full gas with꧋ SCQ tyres and we managed to finish right there in the front row positions.

“It is possibly the best I have felt ❀with the Yamaha R1 and my teamꦕ, but there’s still a lot of margin to find so I have a positive outlook.”

'Jonathan Rea's best day of testing'

Pata Prometeon Yama🌳ha Team Principal, Paul Denning, added: “Day 1 w🎉as really positive.

“I think it was Jonathan’s best day of testing, and actually the first test at Jerez was good as we🔯ll. It was a positive day of testing, making steps forward all day.

“At Cremo🌜na, we didn’t really find that. We came to a wౠall and couldn’t get over it.

“Here, he was progress🍬ively faster all day and arrived very close to the fastest riders ♐at the end with P4, and the fastest Yamaha, so for JR it was a target achieved that he wanted to do at the start of the day.

“Jonat⛦han [only did half a day on Friday] to finish his testing allocation. The plan 🅺was the same as [Thursday].

“Just refining small details, trying to maximise our performance in braking,🍌 cornering, and turning so that the better we can exit the corner, and the faster we are in the middle of the corner, the better we are in terms of any straight-line speed differential.

“Chattering is always an issue here, especially in the last sector, so we’re trying some setting options to reduce that𝓀 and, so far, they’re working quite well.”

Andrea Locatelli detailed his test: “In general, it was two positive days of 𝓰testing, because we improved꧅ some important points, also the lap times with the SC0 tyre this morning and the SCX during the day were very good.

“With the qualifying tyre we found a good solution to have a good feeling and a good lap time, even if I had a small crash at Turn 14 on my best l🐻ap.

“We know it is really important to start💎 the race near the front, but on the rhythm for the race simulation we are not in a bad position.

“I🤡 think we increased the performance, we improved a lot in respec꧋t to last year and the confidence is quite high.

“I feel positive, so I think we can enjoy the race weekend - the confidence after Cremona test and this test is good. Just some days to reset and rest a little bit, and to check the data𒆙, prepare for the race weekend – and thꦜen we go again on track and we are pushing at the maximum.”

T💫he 🍎fourth round of the WSBK season begins June 14 in Misano.