Jonathan Rea and Hiroshi Aoyama concluded a two–day private test at the Assen circuit (their designated test track) where they tested a number of new parts, including a new spec CBR 1000 RR engine which allowed Rea to lap faster than when he won at the the Dutch circuit last April.
There was some slippery stuff on the circuit first thing yesterday and it took some time to put some rubber down, but it turned out pretty good in the end.
We got to try a lot of new stuff, some of which we’d be reluctant to try over a race weekend and we ended up faster than over the race weekend in April.
The new engine was a little better on the straights but we won’t make any firm conclusions until we get to Aragon with our rivals.
We worked a lot on gathering data for new electronics strategies and we’ve definitely made a step forward here and we’re looking forward to using that.
The throttle is smoother on acceleration and we also tried quite an extreme front fork setting which gave a good feeling.
I’m looking forward to a couple of weeks of now, before re-gathering with the team at Aragon,” said Rea.
Hiroshi Aoyama who has yet to enter a Superpole session since his start in the championship (and his best result was an 8th in race 1 at Phillip Island) also tested new parts stating that they gave him more confidence, despite suffering a high speed crash.
“I crashed at about 236kph yesterday at the end of the back straight at Assen.
I slid for a very long time on the asphalt and I think I was almost cooked by the time I eventually stopped! Apart from that, the test was very positive for me and we tested some things that I like.
We have also improved braking stability into the corner and this gives me a lot more confidence.
I will take a breather now and prepare for Aragon, which is not so far from my home in Barcelona.
” Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator:We used these two days to re-confirm some set-up items – linkages, suspension, that sort of thing – and a variety of electronics settings.
We looked at an interesting base setting which might be worth investigation and the latest engine developments have been positive, too.
We’ve made some progress with Hiroshi’s set-up, as well, and I think he could have gone a little faster, but he was quite sore after his fast crash yesterday.
We’ll keep working back at the workshop and take the positives to Aragon and try to put them to good use there.
The next Superbike round is Motorland Aragon in Spain from 29 June to 1 July.
