Of course, winter testing in Spain is often conducive to excellent performances (sun heating the track and fresh air favoring the engines), of course the tires are not the same between the different categories (qualifying tires in Superbike), of course the best MotoGP riders are not present, and of course the Jerez circuit has always generated very close times between MotoGP and Superbike, but it remains no less true that the 1'38.721 achieved by Jonathan Rea today on the Andalusian track is faster than all the times achieved by MotoGP in the Michelin era, including Valentino Rossi's pole position at the 2016 Grand Prix (1'38.736)!
A difference of a hundredth of a second that is both insignificant and very symbolic for the supporters of the two categories, and which will lead us to question a few competent people on the subject.
In the meantime, we will remember that the circuit record still belongs to Jorge Lorenzo since 2015 (Bridgestone tires), in 1'37.910.
The day started under a few clouds at the start of the morning, then the sky became uniformly blue above the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, but a temperature of 12° encouraged the participants in this second day of testing to take their time before returning to the track. Things actually started to get lively from 11 a.m., an hour after the start of the tests.
Danilo Petrucci then took command of operations on the handlebars of his Ducati D17 in 1'40.212 around XNUMX:XNUMX p.m., just a few hundredths ahead Chaz Davies on his Panigale R.
To 13h10, Alvaro Bautista was the first to pass in 1'39 with a time very close to the best time yesterday (1'39.677).
Jonathan Rhea waited for the best conditions of the day, around 16 p.m., to slam his resounding 1'38.721, and even if during this time Álvaro Bautista also managed to go down to 1'38, so the virtual victory remains with the Superbikes.
At the other end of the timesheet, Sam Lowes, who has only completed 20 laps, is not going to bring up its current rating !
Testing continues again tomorrow, but it is currently raining on the circuit and the weather forecast announces that it will last until Friday inclusive...
Photo credit : Worldsbk.com
