Jonathan Rea hits front on final day of Jerez WorldSBK test

Having opted to sit out the first day of WorldSBK testing at Jerez due to the dicey conditions, Jonathan Rea reasserted himself on a drier second day in typically formidable style by topping the timesheets for Kawasaki.

The Ulsterman chose to play it safe by sitting out Wednesday's session as inclement weather prevented the Spanish venue from improving beyond damp conditions, but was back on course today during a brief dry spell to resume his familiar spot at the head of the timesheets.

Indeed, despite completing only 19 laps over the two days, Rea was the only rider to dip below 1m 41s with a 1m 40.983secs effort – just over two seconds adrift of his own lap record.

He was run relatively close by Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu, the Turk leading the way early on before slipping two tenths adrift of his former Kawasaki stablemate, while Scott Redding made it a trio of different manufacturers inside the top three with a solid run to third best.

Alex Lowes turned in the fourth quickest time despite a fall, ahead of former team-mate Michael van der Mark, while Leon Haslam stretched the new Honda’s ‘legs’ in dry conditions to go sixth best, albeit 1.8secs down on Rea.

Loris Baz followed up in seventh, ahead of Alvaro Bautista on the second of the Hondas, while GoEleven Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi and GRT Yamaha’s Federico Caricasulo completed the top ten.

Tom Sykes led the BMW challenge down in 11th with new team-mate Eugene Laverty in 18th position of the 19 Superbike runners.

The WorldSBK teams will now turn attention to the final European pre-season test at Portimao before heading out to Australia in February for official testing and the opening round at Phillip Island (Feb 28-Mar 1)

2020 WorldSBK Jerez Test – Day 2/2