The Castrol Honda Superbike team has concluded their private three day test session at the Losail International circuit in Qatar.
For Jonathan Rea and Superbike newbie Hiroshi Aoyama it was a positive test with both riders despite the broiling track temperatures were able to lap under the lap record.
Rea continued his work on chassis parts for the 2012 machine and on the ride-by-wire system that the team first introduced at the Imola round, while Aoyama spent the three days getting used to riding a superbike spec Honda and Pirelli tires, and according to team owner Ronald Ten Kate, the team will have to make him some specific parts due to the Japanese rider’s small size and weight.
Jonathan Rea: “We’ve got through a lot of work these three days and ended with two long runs today, which was pretty tough in the heat.
We’ve tried heaps of stuff and, like the last couple of tests, we ended up running out of time.
But it’s still been really productive and I’m looking forward to starting the next test on my favourite combination of components because we weren’t able to finish on that today.
We’ve been making some quite big changes to the bike, just to feel the difference between the various set-ups and everyone has been working really well.
It was good to be back at this circuit too; I like it here, and I’m really looking forward to getting back on the bike again in January.
Hiroshi Aoyama: “I got food poisoning before I left Spain to go for the test so I was a bit uncomfortable to start.
Also, my leather suits didn’t arrive in time so I was forced to use an old one.
But it was a very interesting test and a good opportunity for me to meet my new team and spend some time getting used to the new bike and the tyres.
We still have some work to make the bike more comfortable for me to ride so I was not able to push really hard.
I don’t know much about the bike yet and there is still a lot to discover, so I will continue to learn, little-by-little.
But the test has been really good and I hope we’ll get some new materials for the next time I ride the bike.
”Castrol Honda will resume testing after January 15th when the testing ban is lifted and will be holding a private test at Phillip Island in Australia,