The first pre-season tests of almost all the WorldSBK Superbike and Supersport teams present at the Circuito de Jerez-Ángel Nieto concluded today, once again in excellent weather conditions, with sunshine and maximum temperatures of 23º, which is unusual for this time of year.
This good weather made the work of the drivers and engineers easier, since many laps were completed by each of the drivers during these two days, Sam Lowes having shown themselves today to be the most diligent in this area, which allowed them to extract a lot of information to continue the technical development of the machines in preparation for the start of the season at the end of February.
An idea of the atmosphere of the first day of this test:
Generally speaking, most drivers managed to improve their times compared to the day before, the rookie Nicholas Bulega (Ducati-Aruba) standing out from the rest. If yesterday, during the first day of testing, he was the fastest at the end of the day, today he confirmed his good work during these days by once again being the fastest driver with a time of 1 who, in addition to being the only rider to have managed to turn in '37.809', pulverized the best lap of a Superbike on this circuit established by Jonathan Rhea on the Kawasaki in 2019 in 1.38.247. Records which, without being official, give an insight into the rapid adaptation that the Italian had in the category to which he accessed after winning the Supersport world title last season. If the spearhead of the Ducati Aruba team was Nicholas Bulega, the cross was worn by the double Spanish world champion, Alvaro Bautista, who was unable to do his job as usual due to physical problems that prevented him from getting the most out of his motorcycle (see here). The Talavera driver finished sixteenth today with a best time of 1'39.583, a small improvement compared to yesterday's 1'39.847 which, however, does not allow us to be reassured for the rest of the events which will take place in Portimao next week…
For the rest of the drivers, Bulega's best time was followed by that of the Irishman Jonathan Rhea, second today with a time of 1'38.345, which indicates the improvement of his adaptation to the Yamaha R-1.
The BMWs of Scott Redding (Bonovo Action team) and the Turk Toprak Razgatlioglu (Rokit BMW Motorrad) followed with respective times of 1'38.572 and 1'38.638.
The Italian pilot Andrea Iannone (Ducati) has made a good return to motorcycling after its suspension and is already starting to move to the forefront. Today he was fifth with a time of 1'38.744, while Garrett Gerloff (BMW) was just a few thousandths of a second behind him (1'38.832). A good test also allowed the rookie Sam Lowes (Ducati) to take seventh place with a time of 1'38.852. The eighth, ninth and tenth places in the final ranking of the day went to Remy gardner (Yamaha – 1'38.871), Danilo Petrucci (Ducati – 1'38.907) and Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha – 1'38.943).
En MotoGP, Stefan bradl improved by a good half a second on the Honda handlebars, while Stefano manzi (Yamaha – Ten Kate) took the lead in Supersport in 1'41.388 ahead Can Öncü (Kawasaki–Puccetti) and Adrian Huertas (Ducati-Aruba.it).
Results of the second day of testing in Jerez de la Frontera:
Results of the first day of testing in Jerez de la Frontera:
Photo credit: A.Rivero-Circuito de Jerez
