Jonathan Rea was quickest in the final pre-season tests prior to the 2017 Superbike World Championship curtain-raiser in Australia this weekend.

The Castletown-based 30-year-old kicks off the second defence of his WSBK title at Phillip Island, near Melbourne, on Saturday, with a further race on Sunday.

Double champion Rea topped the final ’winter’ tests at the 4.445km circuit earlier this week with a lap of 1min 30.545sec on a ZX-10RR Kawasaki shod with race tyres, well under the existing lap record pace.

The first qualifying sessions of the new season start tomorrow, Friday, with race one to be held at 3pm local Australian time on Saturday (4am UK) and the second race 24 hours later.

Round two will take place at the relatively new Chang Circuit in Buriram, Thailand, between March 10-12.

Northern Irishman Rea, shortlisted for the 2016 Isle of Man Sports Ambassador award, commented: ’We have picked the bike we will use for race weekend and put the package together.

’I have had such a good off-season; I feel I have done a really good job with my personal condition and I have managed to stay healthy so far.

’We’ve been working step-by-step, during the winter tests, but it was not about re-inventing the wheel. Already the ZX-10RR has given us some more potential. I just hope we can stay safe and bag some big points at the start of the new season.’

l For race reports see Tuesday’s IoM Examiner.