Jo💙nathan Rea spent the Misano WorldSBK tes🍷t trying to tweak his Yamaha to suit his riding style.

Rea was fourth💫-fastest on Day 1 then second-fastest on Day 2 in Italy, the highes🌄t-placed Yamaha on both days.

He did 73 laps on Thursday with a be🍷st time of 1’33.206s. He tested a new chassis balance, different weight distributions and rider𒁃 positions.

• 2024 World Superbike Misano Test - Day 2 Results

On Friday Rea did half-a-day, his 1’33.133s was enough to top the timesheet until Toprak Razgatlioglu⛦’s blistering time.

The WSBK legend has found his first months since leaving Kawasaki trying, bꦡut he hopes a breakthr𒀰ough was found in Misano.

Rea explained about Friday: “We put an SCQ tyre on at the end and I💖 was able to go q꧅uite fast.

“It was the first time I felt that I could ride the bike♕ the way I wanted with it.

“In the last🌠 few rounds, I’ve got nervous with the SCQ because I didn’t feel 100% with the bike.

“Step by step, it’s be🥃en a positive test but still a lot of work to do. The updates were just a balance change on the bike, setup ideas.

“I’ve been trying to ride the Yamaha in the Yamaha way aℱnd sometimes it’s not workingꦑ.

“I always looked at the data of Loka, Remy and even sometimes 🎉Toprak but I’m me, I have my style.

“At Cremona, [Yamaha rider coach] ൲Nico Canepa wa♊s a big help with the video analysis, and I was able to see that my lap time wasn’t amazing, but I was really good in some areas.

“We just need to make this bike my bike in the way I 🥃need to ride.

“The idea to change the way the bike behaves, the style, the geometry was to let me ride in the way I want. From the first exit, it seemed quite no💝rmal to me.”

Rea added: “I enjoyed the R1 this test, we arrived with some different set-up ideas than my ‘base bike’ over the first races and I was able to ride in a more familiar🎃 style, just trying to get the Yamaha R1 to compliment me and for me to adapt subtly to the bike.

“With testing days restricted🅘, we had to make the best use of track time and we had a great Day 1 – I was able to complete a lot oཧf laps with no issues, I felt quite competitive with my pace both on race tyres and also the soft tyre.

“Then, Day 2 was a little bit more com♓plicated because the weather came in really early – an🧸d I was only able to utilise half a day, so we had to be very clever timing-wise.

“I was🌌 able to tick some boxes still and get more familiar with the bike and start fine-tuning towards the race weekend.

“Still lots of work to do, but I am happy to start the Misano race weekend soon and excited for the prospects, but we still need to look at our race pace on Fr🌠iday.

“It’s been nice to feel good on the bike and espe🏅cially on the soft tyre, I was really able to get ꦯthe R1 around fast.

“It felt like a real Superpole session at the end, everyone was going full gas with SCQ tyres and we managed to finish right there🌼 in the front row positions.

“It is possibly the best I have felt with the Yamaha R1 and my team, but there’s still a lot of margin to find🦋 so I have a positive outlook.”

'Jonathan Rea's best day of testing'

Pata Prometeon Yamaha Team Principal, ⛄Paul Denning, added: “Day 1 was really positive.

“I think it was Jonathan’s best day of testing, and actually the first test at Jerez was good as well. It was a positive day of testing, maki♑ng steps forward all day.

“At Cre꧋monꦡa, we didn’t really find that. We came to a wall and couldn’t get over it.

“Here, he was progressively faster all day and arrived very close to the fastest ri𓄧ders at the end with P4, and the fastest Yama🐠ha, so for JR it was a target achieved that he wanted to do at the start of the day.

“Jonathan [only did half a day on Friday] to finish his testing allocatio💙n. The plan was the same as [Thursday].

“Just refining small details, trying to maximise our performance in braking, cornering, and turning so that the better we can exit the corner, and the faster we are in the middle of the corner, the better we are in terms of any straight-line speed differen꧟tial.

“Chatteꦺring is always an issue here, especially in the last sector, so we’re trying some setting options to reduce that and, so far, they’re working quite well.”

Andrea Locatell𓆉i detailed his test: “In ⭕general, it was two positive days of testing, because we improved some important points, also the lap times with the SC0 tyre this morning and the SCX during the day were very good.

“With the qualifying tyre we found a good solution to have a good feeling and a good lap time, even if I had a small crash at Turn 14 on my b🌌est lap.

♌“We know it is really important to start the race near the front, but on the rhythm for the race simulation we are not in a bad position.

“I think we increased the performance, we improved a lot in respect t⛦o last year💞 and the confidence is quite high.

“I feel posit🐬ive, so I think we can enjoy the race weekend - the confidence after Cremona test and this test is good. Just some days to reset and rest a little bit, and to check the data, prepare for the race weekend – and then we go again on track 🅠and we are pushing at the maximum.”

The fourth round of the WSBK season begins June 14 i💎n Mis♐ano.