Jonathan Rea set the second-fastest time in this afternoon’s truncated first qualifying session at Donington Park in the UK in preparation for Sunday’s two fifth-round World Superbike championship races.

The Pata Honda rider sat out this morning’s free practice session, which was held in atrociously cold, wet and windy conditions. However, Rea lapped the 4.023km Donington Park circuit in a time of 1m31.560s this afternoon to take provisional second place behind pace setter Tom Sykes, who crashed unhurt as rain fell at the end of the session.

His Pata Honda team-mate, Leon Haslam, passed a medical this morning just four weeks after breaking his left-leg at Assen in the Netherlands. The 29-year-old has been undergoing intensive therapy after an operation on 28 April to insert a pin in his tibia.

Haslam also sat out this morning’s free practice, and was able to complete just a few laps in the cold and windy conditions this afternoon before the rain returned, ending the session early.

Jonathan Rea – P2, 1m31.560s

It was OK today but it’s never ideal in those track conditions. We decided to sit out FP1 this morning because I don’t think there was much to be gained in those really, really wet conditions and the weather forecast says it’s going to improve. In qualifying we went out straight away because I wanted some kind of feeling and we have no data from this circuit for the new electronics package. We couldn’t make a lot of gains in the session but I think tonight we can fine tune the engine-braking with the data we got. That’s the area that the bike really revolves around and we need to sort that out before we alter the chassis. I felt comfortable on the bike but it was quite windy out there - to be honest, they weren’t the best conditions to ride in, so I guess it’s work in progress and I’m looking forward to capitalising on what we’ve learned. Tomorrow our bike should be more precise than race-ready, shall we say?

Leon Haslam – P14, 1m33.402s

I wasn’t going to go out if the conditions were as dodgy as they were this morning but if it rains tomorrow I needed to get a banker in. I managed to do that and get in the top 15 in case it rains, and I only got two laps in dodgy conditions. We made a few adjustments to the bike which helped the knee but in that session I had no pain killers, no strapping, nothing, so for me it can only get better from now. I’m going now to get it iced up and have some more treatment and make a better plan for tomorrow morning.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

It’s good to have Leon back on the bike, which he can ride! We are now in the process of making the bike a little bit more comfortable for him, but because of the weather we didn’t do a lot of laps. He finished 14th but we’ll continue tomorrow and see how it goes. Jonathan was fast straight out of the box in this afternoon’s dryer conditions. There’s not a lot more to say about today, which was dominated by the weather. Tomorrow it’s supposed to improve, so we’ll get a better idea in the morning.




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