One of the advantages of the very grippy Jerez circuit is that it also benefits from generally favorable weather, allowing teams to carry out late or early tests, such as those conducted this week. Moto2 and Moto3 Monday and Tuesday, Superbike and Supersport Wednesday and Thursday, with the latter test ultimately being conducted by Bimota.
This allows the teams themselves, as well as enthusiasts, to have time references to judge the level of relative performance compared to what has already taken place.
Thus, to put it simply, if in Moto2 the lap time ofAlex Escrig (Klint Forward Factory Team) in 1'39.172 on Monday, on the Andalusian circuit whose official record is set at 1'39.564, is capable of opening an interested or even slightly suspicious eye, those achieved yesterday in Superbike allow one to close it again: Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) the fastest at 1'38.641 was nothing to be afraid of Nicholas Bulega, author of a 1'36.629 during the 2025 Superpole or even a 1'37.587 during the test at the end of October !
Yesterday, the last day of these tests, lap times improved significantly as the temperature gradually reached 18°C, but nevertheless remained below the aforementioned benchmarks, allowing Nicolo Bulegaabsent for these two days like his future teammate Iker Lecuonato sleep soundly, dreaming of his brand new Ducati Desmosedici 2026, and saving two days of testing for the future (out of the 10 allowed)...
Having set the fastest time of 1'37.825 on the Bimota KB4 998 Rimini, Alex Lowes a, at the top of the table, took over as the hours passed Tetsuta nagashima (Honda HRC) Michael van der Mark (Rokit BMW Motorrad) then Xavi Virgo (Pata Maxus Yamaha).
The Briton had some upgrades and declared himself satisfied with them.
“We had a positive day. The track was really cold this morning, with some damp areas, especially at turn 8 and a little bit in the last corner. We took our time before going out, but even starting at 11:30, we managed to complete 76 laps.”
We continued the work we started during the test after the last race and tried a few new things, several ideas. We found some good elements in the electronics. Sander, my electronics engineer, worked hard, and we tried two new things to help me on corner entry and give me more confidence. It was positive. Overall, compared to the last 2025 race, we've made a step forward.
We need to remain cautious, as conditions change a lot at Jerez and the track is very grippy, which slows down lap times. But I think we've made the bike a bit better since the last race, which was our goal. Now we can focus on the January tests and continue to develop the project. Overall, I'm really happy.
Behind, Xavi Verge (Pata Maxus Yamaha WorldSBK) He quickly took the lead in the Iwata squadron, completing a total of 132 laps. Still under contract with the Honda HRC MotoGP team until December 31st, he is unfortunately not allowed to speak until then.
Completing the virtual podium, three-tenths of a second behind the fastest, was the BMW test rider Michael van der Mark confirms the overall level of performance achieved, pending that Miguel Oliveira et Danilo Petrucci adapt and extract the quintessence of the official BMW M 1000 RR.
En Supersport, Jeremy Alcove placed the Kawasaki WorldSSP Team's Ninja ZX-6R 636 at the top of the standings, with a time of 1'42.167, just 51 thousandths ahead Corentin Perolari (Honda Racing World Supersport).
A great comeback because in addition to being his first contact with his new team, it was also the first time he had actually ridden since the accident that occurred during training and which had forced him to miss the last races of the WorldSSP season.
However, it wasn't all smooth sailing as the Spanish driver crashed, which led to a brief red flag.
“I’m happy with this test after a few days of ‘reset’ at the end of the season. I didn’t expect to be so fast, so yes, I’m satisfied with the work done.”
We worked a lot with the SCX tire on the first day because the weather was good. In the end, the grip was really excellent. The first day was windier, and Thursday the weather was better.
We started to feel a bit of chatter, like the bike was pushing forward, but then the team did a really good job to correct that.
We didn't do many laps, but I think it was more of a quality test than a quantity test.
I am pleased because, in the tours we carried out, we found all the problems and all the solutions, and we tested everything we needed to test.
In the end, we finished with a good time and a good pace.
The official track record is 1'41.775 and belongs to Randy Krummenacher since 2019, while the 2025 pole position is 1'41.959 (Mattia Casadei).
The tests will resume on January 21 and 22, on the same circuit.
Rankings from the second day of Superbike testing in Jerez: 
First day of Superbike testing standings at Jerez:
Classification credit: worldsbk.com
Photo credits: worldsbk.com and teams
Superbike Test Jerez Bimota Superbike Test Jerez Bimota Superbike Test Jerez Bimota
