Jonathan Rea suffers 'painful bruising' and 'nasty abrasions' in crash during final World Superbike test at Phillip Island

The six-time champion suffered a crash on the Pata Prometeon Yamaha at Turn 11 shortly before the lunch break and was 12th on the time sheets after completing 33 laps in the morning session.

Rea suffered bruising to his left knee and ‘some nasty abrasions’ in the incident, hampering his progress in the afternoon, when he managed a further 31 laps at the recently resurfaced circuit, where higher grip levels paved the way for new record laps at Phillip Island.

The Northern Ireland rider found himself in an unfamiliar 15th position at the conclusion of the one-day test as Rea now turns his attention to his race debut for Yamaha in Saturday’s opening 22-lap race.

He was 1.455s down on pacesetter Toprak Razgatlioglu, who impressed for new team ROKiT BMW to lead Aruba.it Ducati’s and World Supersport champion Nicolo Bulega by 0.074s.

Rea’s Yamaha team-mate Andrea Locatelli was two tenths down on Bulega in third ahead of Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes, while Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Motocorsa Racing Ducati) and reigning champion Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Ducati) completed the top six.

Rea said: “It’s been a difficult day – I feel comfortable on the R1, but really pushing on the limit and understanding how to push the bike to the maximum is still coming.

“The outright pace at the front is incredibly fast, so when you go chasing that ultimate lap time it can feel a million miles away but to be honest, the rhythm for me is not actually too far when we put everything together.

“Step-by-step, the plan is to just work with the guys over the next couple of days to understand how to ride the R1 in the best way possible around here and also get the set-up a bit closer to what I need, and I believe we will be more competitive come the weekend.

“I have a lot of bruising from the crash early this afternoon, but we have a few days rest now before Friday and I expect by the weekend I will be 100%.”

Free practice takes place on Friday ahead of qualifying on Saturday.