World champion Jonathan Rea 'in a really good place' after topping Jerez test

Jonathan Rea set the pace on his Kawasaki during the two-day winter test at Jerez in Spain.

Rea topped the times at last week’s winter test at Jerez in Spain, leading the way with a best lap in 1m 39.160s, which left him 0.2s ahead of Pata Yamaha rider Alex Lowes.

Leon Haslam was third fastest on the second of the KRT machines (1m 39.502s), with series newcomer Alvaro Bautista next on the Aruba.it Ducati V4 R with a lap in 1m 39.620s.

Eugene Laverty was 12th fastest on the Go Eleven Ducati V4 R (1m 40.879s). Laverty was making his debut for his new team at the Spanish circuit.

Pacesetter Rea, who will now take part in a further test at Portimao in Portugal on Sunday and Monday, said: “That was positive, very positive. I felt much better on the bike today and we found some good tyre consumption results.

“Yesterday the track was really green and I struggled a bit with that. Pirelli have brought some different tyres that we had to put in the plan today.

“Aside from that we just kept working with the chassis set-up and we found some big improvements,” he added.

“We are continuing to work with electronics but we are not doing too much fine tuning.

“We had a clear direction in the last winter test and I preferred the bike a certain way.

“I felt like over one lap, and in terms of consistent pace, we are in a really good place.”