Pata Honda completes Aragon test

The Pata Honda team has completed a successful two-day test at Motorland Aragon near Alcaniz in Spain in sunny, but cool and blustery conditions.

Venue for round two of the 2013 World Superbike Championship back in April, the 5.344km Aragon circuit produced a best result of fourth for Jonathan Rea in the Pata Honda World Superbike team, while Michael van der Mark finished on the World Supersport podium.

The Aragon test, the first intense riding sessions since he broke his femur in a crash at Germany's Nurburgring in September, gave Rea and SBK team-mate Leon Haslam an opportunity to develop the stability of the Honda CBR1000RR’s electronics, as well as various chassis settings.

The entire Pata Honda squad will test again at Jerez in Spain on 25-26 November before the winter testing ban kicks in on 1 December.

Jonathan Rea – best time: 1m57.4s

We worked a lot on electronics to give me confidence to ride how I want. We also tried some chassis set-ups around the 2014-spec Ohlins front forks, which were interesting. I’m satisfied with our work and I enjoyed riding a lot. Now I’m looking forward to another test at Jerez where I hope my physical condition can be a little stronger than it has been here.

Leon Haslam – best time: 1m58.5s

The first day was not so good as we had a few problems and I was only able to complete about 30 laps, which was not really how I wanted things to be. But day two was much better and we got through a lot of things on our checklist. My times were quite good on the SC1 but I didn’t really get a chance to go any faster on the SC0 because we ran out of time, but I’m a lot more confident heading towards the Jerez test in just over a week.

Michael van der Mark – best time: 2m02.1s

It’s been a really good test, despite the wind and some quite cold weather. We tested a lot of different stuff and made some big progress with the electronics. Now I’m really looking forward to riding the bike again at Jerez and doing some more work on the CBR.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

It’s been a satisfying test all round and the guys have got through a lot of work here. Jonathan made some improvements to chassis set-up and electronics stability that gave him confidence to push for a better lap time. Leon improved traction control and his feeling on-throttle, as well as working on chassis settings. Michael improved his settings, too, and made a very good race simulation.