Jonathan Rea is confident he is at the start of a comeback against runaway World Superbike Championship leader Alvaro Bautista after ꧅comfortab𝕴ly out-pacing his title rival in free practice for round five at Imola.

With ex-MotoGP racer Bautista taking WorldSBK by stor𒊎m with 11 wins from 11 starts so far this ye⛦ar on the new Aruba.it Ducati Panigale V4 R, only Rea has been able to run comparably with the Spaniard.

Even so, despite his 11 podiums ☂(10 seconds, one third) Rea is already 53ಞ points shy of his rival as action resumes from a short early season hiatus.

Nevertheles꧙s, Rea was in fine form in both FP1 and FP2 at the Italian venue to prove comfortably quicke🏅r than the opposition, not least Bautista who was half-a-second adrift in fourth on the Friday timesheets.

Though the Ulsterman insists little has changed on the bik💙e, a fresh mentality is leaving him positive he is at the start of a formidable fightbacཧk.

“We didn’t really change much (in the break), other than I had a really nice rest at home with my family and training a lot. But at the track, the bike is quite similar and at this tr🦄ack, the character is really different.

“This was the place last year where we started building momentum with the first 𒁃double win of the season and I feel already this year that we have made a small step forward.”