Attention turns to Jerez as rain stops play at Misano

The World Superbike Championship turns its attention to round six of the season at Jerez after getting only a few hours of representative running during a rain-hampered Misano test.

Having seen weather conditions intervene to force race cancellations in two consecutive events at Assen and Imola, Mother Nature was similarly unkind for the two-day test in Italy with rain only abating in the latter stages of the final day.

Affecting the majority of the WorldSBK teams, not least each manufacturer entry, the rain washed out almost the entire first day and much of the second day.

However, though it took until the latter stages of Thursday for the riders to start setting rapid times, Kawasaki Racing boss Pere Riba says the reduced time on track was still productive, with Jonathan Rea producing a 1m 34s lap on the soft tyre – last year’s pole-time was a 1m 33.6s.

"The test was good even if everyone was not so lucky just because of the weather at times,” the Spaniard said. “It was raining in the morning but we were able to test nearly all the items we wanted to try. We are really pleased because I think we made another step forward with the total bike and the balance. We made improvements in chassis geometry and suspension setting.

“This was good because we are looking for help from the chassis side. Jonathan has been the strongest and most consistent in lap times.

“We have to confirm these kind of things at another track, of course, partly because the track temperature and grip were low at this test. We used a Q tyre and Johnny did a 1’34.5 lap, but 1’35 with a race tyre. In all, we were very pleased with this test.”