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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

15 Septembre 2017

Rea Fastest On Friday in Portugal

Official Kawasaki WorldSBK duo Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes finished Friday’s free practice sessions first and fifth respectively in the rankings at a dry and windy Portimao circuit, located on the Algarve.

On the bumpy 4.952km long track layout Rea had been fastest in the morning FP1 session and Sykes was second at that stage. Rea went on to improve his final Friday best time despite the increasingly high winds in FP2. He finished 0.586 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Marco Melandri.
 
In concentrating on finding an optimal set-up for Saturday’s race Sykes had to rely on his FP1 performance for his fastest lap and ended up fifth overall on the day. Both KRT riders have automatically qualified for Superpole 2 on Saturday, a final qualifying contest which determine their grid positions for the first 20-lap race of the weekend.
 
Tom and Jonathan tested at Portimao earlier this season, with Rea finally using the settings he and his team found at that test. He also put in a long run today, to learn more about his Ninja ZX-10RR in simulated race conditions.
 
Sykes and his crew concentrated on gathering information to be ready for the first race of the weekend, which is scheduled for 15.00 local time on Saturday 16th September.
 
Before the first race gets underway, FP3 and then Superpole 2 will give Sykes and Rea the chance to refine their final machine settings. Should Sykes win the Superpole contest on Saturday, and take his career total from 42 to 43, it would make him the joint record holder in terms of all-time WorldSBK pole positions.
 
Jonathan Rea, stated: “It was so windy at times today, even more in the afternoon session than the morning. We have not made a huge amount of changes to the bike because there is a lot more I can change in my riding style here, simply because the track is so challenging. Where you put your bodyweight, how you brake, how you accelerate are key around here. So I came in after a few laps and said to my crew chief Pere Riba, ‘let’s put some tyres in and I will go and make a long run. I’m sure I will be able to learn something for tomorrow’.”
 
Tom Sykes, stated: “We ran out of time to put fresh tyres in at the last moment today. We had quite a lot of things to try in terms of set-up - just different balances and settings. We thought it was more beneficial to work on that, rather than focus on other parts of performance. We still have little things I want to find out and in FP3 tomorrow we will focus on our tyre combination. As of now it was just getting information and making sure we stayed inside the top ten. Tomorrow we can focus more on lap times but today we got a lot of good information to take into raceday with fewer questions to answer.”
 
2017 KRT Rider Statistics
Jonathan Rea: World Champion 2015 and 2016
2017: Races 18, Wins 9, Podiums 17, Superpoles 3
Career Race Wins: 47 (32 for Kawasaki)
Career Podiums: 105 (62 For Kawasaki)
Career Poles: 11 (7 For Kawasaki)
 
Tom Sykes: World Champion 2013
2017: Races: 18, Wins 2, Podiums 14, Superpoles 4
Career Race Wins: 33 (33 for Kawasaki)
Career Podiums: 98 (97 For Kawasaki)
Career Poles: 42 (42 For Kawasaki)
 
Kawasaki FIM Superbike World Championship Statistics
4 x Riders’ Championships (Scott Russell 1993, Sykes 2013, Rea 2015 & 2016), 1 x EVO Riders’ Championship (David Salom 2014)
2 x Manufacturers’ Championships (Ninja ZX-10R 2015 & 2016)
2 x Teams’ Championships (KRT/Provec Racing 2015 & 2016)
 
Kawasaki FIM Superbike World Championship Statistics
Total Kawasaki Race Wins: 102 – third overall
Total Kawasaki Podiums: 339 – third overall
Total Kawasaki Poles: 70 – second overall