Jonathan Rea endures tough day on return to action: ‘I don't feel amazing'
Rea has been out of action since injuring his left foot in a crash in testing at Phillip Island in Australia at the end of February.
He was given the all-clear to race this weekend by the WSBK Medical Director but the record-breaking six-time world champion said it was a challenging comeback after such a long period out of the saddle.
Rea set his fastest lap in 1'30.547, which was 1.3 seconds down on pacesetter and championship leader Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati).
'It's been a difficult day but firstly, my foot feels fine riding,' Rea said.
'I had a couple of areas where my foot was in the wrong position and when I ride with my big toe on the foot peg it feels quite painful but generally it's fine.
'Of course, it's been a long time off the bike and physically, I didn't feel amazing.
'However, I expected that to an extent and need some race fitness back.
'The R1 is quite different to when I last rode it and we worked through FP1 and FP2 with the same tyre set-ups to find the rhythm and still I didn't feel fully comfortable.
'We made some changes but nothing has really ticked the box yet to let me stop the bike in the way I really want to, so that's the focus for tonight to give me more confidence to reach the apex.
'We'll try to make a step tomorrow but – even if it's really tough – it's great to be back with the team and re-starting the journey to being fully competitive.'
Rea is competing at Cremona for the first time after he was ruled out of last year's inaugural round at the new WSBK venue because of injury.
Italian Bulega led the times by 0.307s from BMW's Toprak Razgatlioglu, who is also making his debut at Cremona this weekend after he, too, missed the 2024 race through injury.
Bulega finished second in the standings in a sensational rookie season in World Superbikes last year and currently leads Razgatlioglu by 21 points going into the fourth round.
The first race today is scheduled for 1300 BST with tomorrow's races at 1000 BST and 1300 BST.
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