Jerez WSBK: Rea hampered by traction control problems

Reigning World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea has been hampered by traction control problems during free practice at Jerez and only just squeaked into Superpole two this afternoon, finshing ninth on the combined timesheets.

But the works Kawasaki man seems relatively unconcerned as he says he feels good on the ZX-10R and is confident his crew chief Pere Riba will find a solution to the problems overnight.

“It’s not as bad as the position looks, quite honestly. I feel good on the bike but everywhere I am asking for throttle and grip from it, there is a lot of interference from the traction control,” said Rea, speaking at Jerez.

“It has been cutting all around the lap. Compared to testing and last year, we have taken away so much power to try and avoid the spinning but it is still spinning more than when it had 40 per cent more power.

“We need to analyse it as the chassis is quite similar to how we run our base setup so maybe we have a problem, maybe something is wrong with sensors or electronics but we won’t know until we have a look. It’s good that we have all night now.

“This morning I felt good but then I saw the laptime was dropping and I couldn’t get into the 1’41s. We are only a few tenths off. Chaz looks strong but compared to the rest we are only a couple of tenths off.”