Rea fastest in WSBK testing

Honda's Jonathan Rea has powered to the fastest time in the three-day official world superbike test in Portugal from January 22-24, reinforcing his status as one of the championship top brass in 2010.

Rea cut a best lap of 1:42.270 at Portimao, which was not only well over a second under Michel Fabrizio's official race benchmark, but also eclipsed Ben Spies' best ever lap around the undulating circuit.

The stirring battle between Rea and Leon Haslam (Suzuki), who had been quickest on day one, continued right until the end, with the latter ending up 0.30secs behind. The British domination continued with Shane Byrne taking his private Ducati into third place, followed by reigning supersport world champion Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha).

"This test was a lot of fun, we worked through everything methodically and we are in good shape to begin the season," said Rea. "We got most of the big things like suspension spec, linkage and swing-arm teed off so now we can go to Phillip Island and fine-tune our racing.

"To say we are ready to go racing at Phillip Island, we're not sure about that, but the bike is ready and now I plan to put the next three or four weeks to good use with my trainer and hopefully I'll be ready. We're all excited about the prospect of racing for a world championship."

In the final stages, after most of the top riders had used soft tyres normally reserved for Superpole, Fabrizio (Ducati) found himself in fifth place ahead of former double world champion James Toseland (Yamaha), who returns to WSBK after two lean years in MotoGP.

Max Biaggi (Aprilia) was the only one of the leading runners not to go out on softer rubber, and the Italian finished the test in seventh place, just ahead of 2009 title runner-up Noriyuki Haga (Ducati).

Australians Troy Corser (BMW), Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki) and Broc Parkes (Honda) ended the outing in 13th, 14th and 17th places respectively, while Andrew Pitt (BMW) wasn't in attendance.

"I am pretty happy with what we did manage and the amount of progress we made," said Corser. "We didn't get a chance to try some new Ohlins forks, but we did try some different rear shocks and found some ideas that we can work on next time out.

"Having Davide (Tardozzi) in the team is an asset and we are also lucky that Max (Bartolini) has joined us as well. He was Michel Fabrizio's race engineer and has heaps of experience and I'm sure that he and Davide will push the project forward considerably.

"I am really happy with the engine and now I feel that we have to get the chassis or the set-up and balance of the bike working better and that will allow me to push much harder. I feel that there's more there in the engine, but I can't use it and that is a little frustrating. If we can fix that piece of the jigsaw Ruben and I would be able to go quite a bit quicker and that'd be great fun."

Vermeulen said: "It went quite good but we were a bit unlucky with the weather. It is great to have learned the track before we come back here to race. We have different issues, some of the same issues, but we are definitely improving the bike. It is moving forward in the right direction.

"To be honest I did my best time on the standard, hard race tyre. At the end we had a small technical problem so we could not use the soft race/qualifying tyre. I hoped to be closer to the front than the gap we have now, but I think it is realistically more like one second. I think we will get there."

Eugene Laverty (Honda) was fastest in supersport from Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki) and Michel Pirro (Honda).

Click on the following link for all the times from Portimao.

The 2010 WSBK tests will conclude at Phillip Island before the opening round at the Victorian circuit a week later (February 26-28).

Before that however, several teams, including BMW, Aprilia and Ducati, will be heading to Valencia for some extra testing.

Tickets are still available for the round at Phillip Island, which will also feature the opening round of the 2010 Australian Superbike Championship.