Rea in action on the Fireblade at Losail

Castrol Honda's Jonathan Rea made some hefty setup changes to his World Superbike Fireblade during a three-day test at the Losail circuit near Doha but has come away with some productive data he can take forward to the next run out at Phillip Island.

Rea's team wanted to get some extra bike time in before the WSBK test ban comes into force on December 1 so travelled to the Qatari track to evaluate new parts and settings to take into 2012 and he also worked with new crew chief Chris Pike, who has joined the team from HM Plant Honda.

"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," said the Irishman.

"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."