Rain wrecks Jonathan Rea’s Repsol Honda debut

Jonathan Rea’s competitive debut on Casey Stoner’s factory Honda RC213V machine was ruined today by intermittent rain at the Misano circuit.

The British rider didn’t even venture out of pit lane in this morning’s opening practice session in which only nine riders completed a timed lap.

The track surface never got chance to completely dry during the entire day, despite a fierce winding blowing in off the nearby Adriatic coast.

Rain fell at regular intervals and Rea did manage seven laps in this afternoon’s session that saw only 11 riders take to the track in unpredictable and tricky conditions.

The conditions were the worst possible way for the 25-year-old to kick-off his MotoGP career, with the Ten Kate Honda World Superbike rider desperately needing dry track time to build up his speed and confidence on the RC213V he has only tested in Brno and Motorland Aragon.

Rea, who is deputising for injured reigning world champion Stoner in Misano and the forthcoming Motorland Aragon races, told MCN: “It was a pointless exercise really. I don’t understand the bike enough anyway but to come to a new circuit and adapt again is difficult and the top riders weren’t sitting in the garage being snobs.

“It wasn’t hot enough to get temperature into the slick tyre and it wasn’t wet enough for the wet tyre to last any longer, so for me it was a disaster.

“I spent one-and-a-half days in Aragon but I had to leave at lunch to go to the Nurburgring but at the end of that I started to feel good on the bike and I felt ready to go to Misano and carry on that feeling. 

“Today though was like starting from square one again because you go out and you don’t have the confidence and that’s hard to get immediately again. I just need more heat on the ground to be able to push. I just want consistent conditions, so whether that is full wet or full dry just to get some laps in and find some rhythm.”

Rea’s big chance to replace Stoner means he will be constantly switching between the Ten Kate CBR1000RR and RC213V prototype and he said that was already proving a tough mental challenge.

He added: “Physically it is fine but mentally it is much harder to go from the superbike to MotoGP because when I came back from Aragon to the Nurburgring I had such a good feeling straightaway.

“The bike was moving and I had a lot of feedback from the tyres and the chassis. I immediately understood the limit but when I went from Russia to Brno it was hard to get to a certain level. It feels like the limit but the limit is one second beyond that and that’s what is tough.”