Jonathan Rea crashed during a World Superbike championship testing session at Phillip Island in Australia, potentially jeopardising his participation in this weekend’s opening round of the 2011 championship.
Rea had set the third quickest time in the morning’s session on day two of an official WSBK test and was on his first lap of the afternoon when he crashed at Phillip Island’s fast turn three, getting off his Castrol Honda CBR1000RR at around 210kph (130mph).
Rea dislocated the ring finger on his left hand but was later transferred to The Alfred hospital in Melbourne to undergo x-rays and scans on his left wrist. Despite the crash, the 24-year-old set the third fastest overall time of the test, with Carlos Checa and Sylvain Guintoli taking the top two slots.
His Castrol Honda team-mate, Ruben Xaus, meanwhile set the 13th fastest time over the two days. The Spanish rider continues to familiarise himself with the CBR1000RR after severely curtailed winter testing time, and has been able to improve his times in each of the testing sessions at Phillip Island.
Jonathan Rea – best lap 1m31.206s
I’m so frustrated because we were just about there on race pace and everything was feeling really good. Early in this afternoon’s session, I was in turn three and winding it on when I suddenly felt the rear squirming and then I realised the bike was on fire. Basically I had to get off it quickly and unfortunately it was at 130mph, which is quick enough. My finger and wrist are sore – in fact I’m pretty sore all over – but I’m still waiting for the final diagnosis. At the moment it’s too early to know how I’ll be feeling at the weekend, but I certainly didn’t want to start this season the way I finished the last one. I know it’s one of those things that you don’t expect and can’t prepare for, but it’s nobody’s fault and we’ll just have to hope I can be back on it soon.
Ruben Xaus – best lap 1m32.405s
We’ve had four days here now and done many laps on the bike, which I really needed. It’s like when you go to school and you need to put in the study hours to improve. We had a few problems in the first test last week when we struggled for grip opening the throttle. Johnny has given me some help and his set-up, which is completely different to what we had last week, seems to be a way around that and during these last two days we have shifted more weight to the front of the bike and it’s definitely improved things. We’ve worked step-by-step, especially working to stop the bike jumping around a bit at the rear. We’ve got a couple of days to relax and analyse things now, but that’s the only thing that’s slowing me down a little. I’d like to be closer to the front, of course, but we haven’t had the best weather during our winter tests, so we just haven’t done as many laps as some others. The times are still quite close though, so I’m looking forward to getting back on the bike this weekend and getting the season started, which I hope will be the same for Johnny.
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
The testing was going well until the start of this afternoon’s session when Jonathan had a very big crash. He was not to blame at all for the crash, which came at high speed when the machine started to leak oil on his rear tyre and caught fire. Jonathan was forced to jump off at one of the fastest corners of the track. We hope he’ll be back on the bike with us soon. On Ruben’s side we are step-by-step improving the set-up, but we’re sure we’ll master it and have the puzzle sorted by the weekend. He’s been going faster in every session and we aim to keep things going in that direction.
