The first pre-season Superbike test World SBK ended today in Jerez after two days marked by rain yesterday, and finally also today, which greatly disrupted the course of the two sessions.
Today, despite the rain arriving late in the day, the track was very wet from the early hours due to the showers from the previous day.
The pilots therefore decided to wait for an improvement in conditions before putting on their suits and taking to the track.
This was achieved from 14:30 pm, when the Andalusian circuit presented a dry appearance in most of the corners, except for a few damp areas in places.
From that moment on, the margin for improvement allowed for notable improvements, and activity on the track became frenetic, with all the drivers working hard, trying to develop and improve the new machines for the 2026 season, until the rain returned around 16:00 PM, forcing them to stop in the pits, although many continued to ride, even though lap times were no longer improving.
At the end of this cat-and-mouse game with the rain, Nicholas Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), runner-up in the world championship, who was absent from yesterday's session, was among the riders present on track this afternoon to fine-tune the settings of his new Panigale V4 R.
Despite a crash at turn 5, he set the fastest time of the day with a 1'39.331, incomparable to the 1'52.976 of Danilo Petrucci (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) yesterday.
Absent yesterday, alex lowes, a Bimota rider by Kawasaki Racing Team, finished second in 1'39.450, while
Xavi Verge, new Pata Maxus Yamaha rider, set the third fastest time in 1'39.
Absent yesterday, like his brother, Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) set the fourth fastest time with a 1'39″811, followed by Michael Van Der Mark, BMW test rider, who completed the time in 1'39.836. Meanwhile, the Spanish rider from the Aruba.it Racing – Ducat team, Iker Lecuona, who was making his debut in his new team, finished in sixth place with a time of 1'39.979, while his fellow Spaniard Alvaro Bautista, who was making his debut with the Barni Racing team, finished the test fifteenth with a time of 1'40.475.
In total, 35 riders took to the track in the Superbike and Supersport categories, with the pleasure of witnessing the tests ofEnea Bastianini, teammate of the Spaniard Maverick Vinales at Red Bull KTM Tech3 in MotoGP.
While the Spaniard was practicing figure eights in a parking lot, the Italian took advantage of the day to train on his Superbike and prepare for the first MotoGP pre-season tests, which will take place in Sepang in less than two weeks. He set a rather slow lap time of 1 minute 42.805 seconds.
Given the limited lessons learned from these days in Andalusia, it is hoped that the next test (January 28–29) will be more productive in Portugal in a week…
Results of the test in Jerez, Day 2:
Superbike Test Jerez (rain)
