The Honda HRC team has spent two days at Portimão with Somkiat Chantra and Jonathan Rea, standing in for the injured Jake Dixon, although the weather ultimately allowed for just one day of track action.
The factory Honda HRC team tried to make the best use of the few hours of dry track time during the test at Portugal’s Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, where Round 2 of the championship will take place on 27–29 March.
The squad was pleased to have Somkiat Chantra back on board following a period of recovery. Having missed several pre-season tests as well as the opening championship round in Australia due to injury, Chantra was keen to make the most of this week’s session to regain confidence with his bike and team, while also assessing his physical condition. Jake Dixon is still out of action after sustaining injury during last month’s Phillip Island test. The Brit was therefore replaced by HRC test rider Jonathan Rea.
Both Chantra and Rea made a solid start on Monday morning until a rain shower just before 1pm drove all the riders back into the pits. The track unfortunately remained damp for a while, with the SBK field only really making use of the final hour of the day. Having focused on general set-up work and electronics and completing 41 and 32 laps respectively on day one, Chantra and Rea were keen to clock up more miles aboard the CBR1000RR-R on day two.
Unfortunately, cold temperatures and mixed conditions throughout Tuesday prevented any further track action, but both riders were pleased with the positive feeling and the constructive work and atmosphere they experienced with their respective squads.
The Honda HRC team will confirm the rider line-up for the second WorldSBK round, taking place at Portimão in a little over two weeks’ time, in the coming days
Jonathan Rea
“Yesterday I had a smile on my face just because I was riding the bike at this circuit that I love. It was great to work with the crew again and get that feeling back, even though we once again had to deal with some bad weather. In fact, the weather has been a challenge throughout the whole winter testing season. So far, we’ve only managed to complete around 50–60 laps in all, which is less than one full day of testing in normal conditions, so we still have a lot of work to do. That said, I was able to understand the level of the CBR quite quickly when I arrived. It’s already good, but there are clearly some areas where we can improve. We’re getting there gradually, and we’re giving the engineers in Japan and the team here a clearer direction to follow. Physically my condition is much better compared to the first test we had in Jerez, where I couldn’t bend my knee enough to ride comfortably. Portimão is a very physical track, so all in all it was a good test, and I feel physically ready to keep progressing with the work.”
