While reigning World Champion Jonathan Rea had clocked 1'39.862 the day before, his teammate Tom Sykes improved on the second and final day to 1'38.889. But the real bomb was Niccolo Canepa's third time, on a Yamaha strictly identical to the two official machines of Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark.
Canepa perfectly fulfilled his role as development driver within the Yam team. The good news is that the Italian (2017 FIM Endurance EWC World Champion) will compete in the Magny-Cours race on September 30 as a wild card. The GMT's request to this effect from the organizer was accepted. Canepa will ride another World Superbike Championship race as a wild card, but with Assen WSBK falling at the same time as the 24 Hours Motos, Imola the same weekend as Slovakia, and Brno at the same time as the 8 Hours of Oschersleben makes the team's task extremely complicated. A World SBK race in Italy is being considered, because it would delight the Italian Niccolo, but nothing has yet been decided in this direction. Only Magny-Cours is currently confirmed.
Tom Sykes' time of 1'38.889 is entirely respectable, even if far from the famous 1'37.986 achieved last November by Johnny Rea, then ahead Andrea Iannone, Espargaro Pol and Alex Rins. Sykes could perhaps have gone slightly faster but he fell during the final minutes in the Dry Sack corner, without seriousness. Among the other falls of the day, all without serious consequences, we noted that of Jordi Torres (good seventh on the MV Agusta) at the end of the start-finish straight, as well as those of Alex Lowes (in Dry Sack) and Kenan Sofuoglu in turn 3.
Leon Camier ranked fourth in this second day of testing on his Honda, while his American teammate Jake Gagne had a little more difficulty in 17th position, just ahead of the first Superstock 1000 driven by Lorenzo Zanetti in 1'41.226 (editor's note: the official record in STK 1000 being 1'42.113, achieved by Markus Reiterberger for pole position in 2017 on his Van Zon Remeha BMW S 1000 RR, we will have some slight doubts about the classification of Zanetti's bike in Superstock. That of Rinaldi , author of a phenomenal time the day before in STK, was registered in SBK on the second day).
Loris Baz who had finished 11th the day before at 1.267 on his BMW Gulf Althea in 1'41.129, was 12th on this second day, in 1'40.707. It was certainly not transcendent, but it nonetheless preceded the Ducati of Chaz Davies, in 1'40.723. Fortunately for the Reds, Marco Melandri took his Panigale to 5th place in 1'39.754. The two official Yamahas of Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark were in 8th and 9th positions, almost a second behind their teammate of the day Niccolo Canepa.
To Loris Baz, who are " The test went pretty well, it was comprehensive and we learned a lot. I'm gradually starting to get to know the bike, the settings, etc. and I'm very happy with the work we've done here. I'm still struggling with new tires and soft solutions, but I'm not particularly worried, it's early days. We hope to improve further both in Portimao and then in Australia of course. »
In Supersport, Raffaele de Rosa (1.43.715) was 0.1 ahead of Kenan Sofuoglu, who achieved the record pole position in 2016 in 1'42.969. The next tests will take place at the Portuguese circuit of Portimao on January 28 and 29.
Results of the second day of testing:
https://twitter.com/KRT_WorldSBK/status/956215115644366848
Photo: Niccolo Canepa (© GMT 94)
