To Alvaro Bautista As for the other Superbike riders, the pre-season officially ended today with the second day of testing held at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia, where free practice for the Australian round, the first event of the 2023 WorldSBK season, will begin on Friday morning.
According to his own words, the Ducati rider does not attach much importance to the rankings of these tests, even if these two days of work were very fruitful for the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team, Álvaro Baptist having been able to set interesting times both on the fast lap and on the pace of the race. In the end, after finishing Monday's two sessions in third position despite a minor fall in the afternoon, the reigning world champion managed to improve further during the second day, closing the page of this test in top of the hierarchy, thanks to a time of 1'30.272 obtained during Tuesday morning FP1, followed by a convincing racing simulation in the afternoon.
Álvaro Baptist : “I'm happy because the feeling with the bike was immediately good. The bike behaved well from the start, so we didn't have to make any major changes and only adjusted small details. On Monday we worked a lot on the settings and Tuesday on the tires and looking for maximum sensations with the ones we will use this weekend. For me, the limited number of tires we had here was not a disadvantage. Normally we change the tires during testing after 14, 15 laps, here I did 20 laps each time. I actually prefer it because it allows you to always work for the race instead of chasing times. We are ready to start the new season. I think it's the best pre-season of my career. The bike is very good. Of course, as a rider you are always looking to improve it, and some typical Ducati characteristics, like the critical cornering behavior when the throttle is closed or a certain instability on fast circuits like here at Phillip Island, may be linked to my low weight and remained present on the new model. I will be happy if we can improve this. But I am certainly not disappointed by this development! The feelings are definitely positive and I can't wait to get back on track on Friday for the first free practice sessions, even if the race weekend is completely different again.
I've always said that you shouldn't give much importance to test results because drivers are testing this and that, trying to find the best setup and the best tire combination. And only when it counts, when the sessions for the first two races begin, do they put the puzzle together. I'm confident everyone will be faster on race weekend! I watched Toprak Razgatlioğlu on the track, he has the necessary pace for the race, but he is not yet giving 100%. If he can follow someone for a short period of time, he is automatically faster. It's the same with Jonathan Rea. »
Combined results WSBK Superbike Test Phillip Island:
Combined results WSBK Superbike Test Phillip Island J2: 
Classification credit: Worldsbk.com
