With under three tenths covering the top 8 on the first day at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, KRT ended the first sessions satisfied with Tom Sykes in P3 and Jonathan Rea in P8 on the combined timesheets. Championship leader Rea used the track time to work on Race setup and despite not testing on the Riviera di Rimini in recent weeks like many of their competitors, both Kawasakis showed great pace in preparation for the two WorldSBK Races of the Round.

2015 WorldSBK Champion Rea used Friday to do a customary race simulation, as well as focusing on tyres and gathering as much information as possible with which to prepare for lights out on Saturday.

“We are not far away and we made a good step in between FP1 and FP2, just to make it a little bit more easy,” explained Rea. “I suffered with a bit too much pitching at the beginning but in the afternoon it was OK. We managed to do a long run, a race simulation, and we have good information from that now. It seems the track is using the tyre more than it did last year. Some split times are very constant whether we use a new or old tyre, and some are going away. We were lucky today because the weather was super hot and we managed to evaluate a new rear tyre that Pirelli brought, which seems to be working well. I am quite satisfied with the opening day.”

The reigning Champion will be back out to evaluate his last adjustments at 8:45am (GMT `2) on Saturday 18^th June, before Tissot-Superpole qualifying at 10:30 counts the paddock down to Race 1 at 13:00. With Rea the only rider to have been on the podium in every Race, the Northern Irishman has his sights set even higher in Round 8 as the gap at the top of the points table continues to grow, with Superpole sure to see the KRT rider switch to time attack.