KRT will start its final two-day European winter test at Motorland Aragon on 3rd February, one week before the official team launch of the all-new Ninja ZX-10R in full race colours. Already feeling well prepared, the two test days in Aragon will be used to make the final evaluations and confirmations before the first travel crates head off to Australia.

Rea is looking to concentrate some of his available track time on race simulations, while Sykes is aiming to reconfirm some existing settings and try to find even more improvements for the first round that takes place in less than a month’s time. There will be only one official pre-season test session left for all riders in Australia, on Monday 22 February and Tuesday 23 February, before the race weekend begins for real.

MotorLand Aragon is a long, undulating and ultra-modern circuit with a long back straight to let the powerful new Ninja ZX-10R sing to its full volume. As such, it is a very contrasting circuit to Jerez, making data cross referencing useful and meaning good results on both tracks bodes well for the new bike.

Tom Sykes stated, “Our test at Jerez went very well and I am happy. Jerez was really straightforward. We made both big and small set-up changes there, so it was really productive. We learned a lot about the new 2016 bike on the final day and now I am looking forward to MotorLand to have more time on the bike and reconfirm some settings. There are always areas where I want to improve, with the combination of both me and the bike.”

Jonathan Rea stated: “We did not do any race simulations so far in 2016 so it would be nice to be equipped with that information before we go to Australia. We will continue to work and understand the bike a little bit more and be in good shape for the races. I have had a pretty hectic start to the year so I forced myself to have a few quiet days before this test, to be fully prepared for it.”