Pata Honda riders Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam finished in seventh and eighth places overall respectively after today’s three Free Practice sessions at Laguna Seca in round nine of the 2014 World Superbike championship.

For Rea, who missed last year's races through injury, it was a new circuit to tackle on his Pata Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP but the 27-year-old took to the 3.610km track instantly, finishing his opening session in fifth place and ending the day just 0.3s from the provisional pole position time of fellow Brit, Chaz Davies.

Haslam, too, was in good form today, a further three-tenths back from his team-mate but generally with more positive progress than on his last visit to Laguna Seca with the team last September.

With weather conditions changing through the day - starting with cloud and drizzle and ending in bright sunshine - today’s three session were all timed for tomorrow afternoon’s Superpole. This will determine final grid ositions for Sunday’s two 25-lap races at Laguna Seca, with both Pata Honda riders progressing automatically to Superpole 2 tomorrow thanks to their top ten results today.

Jonathan Rea - P7, 1m23.638s

I really enjoyed riding today – it’s an amazing track and, to be honest, the Corkscrew is quite intimidating! I think I’ve got it right about three times in all my laps today! The good thing is that my guys are making really good progress with the bike. All day we’ve chipped away and done a lot of work on used rubber. According to the data, it seems that the drop in lap times from new to old isn’t as harsh as last year. Tomorrow we need to make a really good Superpole because this is a difficult place to pass but, we’ll keep that in mind as we set up the bike and try to make it one that we can make some passes with. As I said, I’m really enjoying riding here and although the position isn’t that great, the gap to the front is not too big, so I’m looking forward to maki ng more progress tomorrow.

Leon Haslam - P8, 1m23.922s

I’m feeling pretty good, really, and we’ve made some progress with the chassis. We made a change right at the end on a new tyre and it wasn’t quite the right direction so for tomorrow we’ll come back to where we were. But we’re not a million miles away, we’re pretty consistent and I’m happy with the progress we’ve made so far. I’m fitter this year and the package is a lot more consistent, too, even though we’re still suffering in a few areas. But this place is all about riding the track and attacking it with a bike that allows you to do that. I think that, with all that in mind, we’re making the right steps.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

Jonathan’s time of 1m23.6 is just a little bit from the front so, for his first time racing here, he’s had a really good day. There are still some things to try with the chassis and some electronics settings like engine brake and on-power to adjust but overall it’s quite positive. Leon did a 23.9 and this is also quite good. We see on the data some problems in the second corner so we need to improve that and there’s room for improvement in other sectors, too. But he’s quite a bit faster than he was last year and he’s quite close to the front so not a bad day for the team.

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