[WSBK] Bautista and Ducati against Rea and Kawasaki: After the secret tests, the moment of truth soon in Aragon?

Will Álvaro Bautista continue his triumphant march, materialized so far by 6 victories in 6 races? We expected a good performance from the Spaniard from Talavera de la Reina due to his driving qualities, but with hopes tempered by his total ignorance of the Pirellis, by the fact that he had used brake discs in steel for the last time in 2009 (250 Aprilia of the Mapfre Aspar Team), and above all because he had a completely new machine with his Ducati Panigale equipped for the first time with a V4 and in its inaugural season.

The last obstacle, which was not the least, was Jonathan Rea, four-time successive World Champion on ZX-10R, who himself had come a long way. It all started for the Northern Irishman in 2008 at Ten Kate when James Toseland (WSBK World Champion in 2007 on Honda for the Dutch team) took the road to the Grands Prix and was replaced by Carlos Checa and Ryuichi Kiyonari. At the same time, Rea was riding in the same team in Supersport with Andrew Pitt. Cousins ​​Gerrit and Ronald ten Kate changed tactics by hiring Jonathan Rea in the Superbike category at the last race of the year in Portugal in 2008, who remained with the Batavian team until the end of the 2014 season in Qatar. . Johnny hid the misery of the CBR brilliantly, winning at least one race each year, and even finishing third in the World Championship in 2014 with 4 victories, which earned him to be hired by Kawasaki to replace Loris Baz who left for MotoGP at Forward Racing on Yamaha (4th at Misano in 2015).

Michael van der Mark and Sylvain Guintoli succeeded Rea at Honda in 2015, then Nicky Hayden in place of the Frenchman in 2016, then Stefan Bradl in 2017, then Jake Gagne and Leon Camier in 2018, without the slightest success since Jonathan Rea's last victory at Portimao on July 6, 2014.

At Kawasaki, Rea triumphed royally for four consecutive seasons. Was he going to continue his momentum in 2019? During the Jerez tests last January, Rea impressed by achieving a 1'39.160 on racing tires, 1.5 faster than his own lap record set in 2017. His teammate Leon Haslam ranked 4th at 0.350 and Toprak Razgatlioglu 6th at 0.790.

Shortly after, at Portimao, Johnny Rea tried his luck in the very last quarter of an hour on a now dry surface and managed to set an exceptional lap in 1'40.855 with a qualifying tire. The gaps were then huge, with Alex Lowes at 0.9, Álvaro Bautista at 1.0 and Leon Haslam at 1.2. For many the cause was heard and with such a gap Rea did not seem at all threatened.

Then Álvaro Bautista won in front of leader Kawasaki with a lead of 14.983 in the first race in Australia. In Thailand, the Iberian did it again by winning Race 1 with 8.217, then the third with 10.053. We will not take into account here Race 2 which only takes place over the reduced distance of 10 laps.

For some, it is not the Ducati that is the cause of the triumph, but Bautista. Their proof: the 3 other Ducatis are far away. Their omission: Chaz Davies is coming back from injuries and repeated operations, while Michael Ruben Rinaldi has a good bike at Barni Racing but not really the riding level of Bautista, and Eugene Laverty perhaps does not have at Goeleven the an ideally prepared motorcycle: did he not recently declare in Buriram “ For the fourth time in my career, I came into a corner without brakes and had to jump at 200 km/h. Once in a runner's career, it can happen. Twice is rare. Three times means I must have been a real bastard in a past life. But four times!? »

It is therefore difficult to separate the merits to be attributed to Ducati and Bautista. Carl Fogarty (4 times World Champion on Ducati) explained that the lack of results for the Panigale V2 did not come from the bike, but from the riders. We will have the opportunity to see this from the next race in Aragon, with Chaz Davies now recovered, on his favorite circuit. In 2013, Chaz won both rounds in his official BMW. On Ducati, he won one round in 2015, both in 2016, one in 2017 and one in 2018. He holds the two circuit records, that of the tests in 1'49.319 and that of the lap in 1'50.421. So if Chaz has to win a race at the start of the season, it should be in Aragon.

Johnny Rea, also a winner at MotorLand last year, will also be in good conditions: Aragon is the usual testing circuit for his Provec team located in Granollers near Barcelona. This is where the Kawasaki Racing Team does most of its winter tuning testing.

Ducati's advantage over Kawasaki will therefore be reduced to a minimum in Spain, much more than in Australia and Thailand. The result will be all the more important as it will be after this third race on the calendar that the regulations will be modified or not to technically balance the forces involved. If Kawasaki does not react victoriously, the rest of the season could be difficult for the Greens.

Secret tests in Aragon for Ducati

Faced with Provec's perfect knowledge of the terrain, Ducati could only react and that's why Bautista and Davies went to film for two days in Aragon in absolute secrecy. All the teams had already raced there (publicly) in mid-last November. The results of these two days of testing combined were:

1-Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 1.49.668

2-Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) 1.51.157

3-Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1.51.180

4-Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) 1.51.852

5-Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team – WorldSBK) 1.51.479

6-Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Racing Team) 1.51.656

Alvaro Bautista was not there, because he was racing in Valencia during the last Grand Prix with the GP17 of the Angel Nieto team.

According to our colleagues at Corsedimoto.com, Ducati may have just tested engines with limited revs, since after Aragon they may be forced to remove 250, or even 500 rpm from their V4 which is currently entitled to 16 rpm.

The official Ducati V4s participating in the BSB with Josh Brookes and Scott Redding are limited to 16, and they have just filmed in Portimao as we can see in the video below, due to Aaron Kingswood who we thank.

Video: Alvaro Bautista vs Johnny Rea in the Buriram race (Dorna TV)

Video below: Josh Brookes and Scott Redding (Panigale V4 BSB) at Portimao

Photos: Ducati