Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Ducati) continued to find unmatched speed and advantages from his all-new Ducati V4R on the second day of WorldSBK testing, scoring the best lap time again.
Another ever-improving new package in 2019 – the official BMW Motorrad S1000RR of Tom Sykes – was second, setting up some exciting possibilities for race weekend.
Bautista set a personal best of the test 1’30.303, to get 0.236 seconds clear of Sykes. To put this in perspective, the current lap record, set in a competitive race on regular tyres, is 1’30.848. Nobody has had access to qualifying tyres.
In the overall two-day combined standings, Leon Haslam proved to be third fastest on his KRT machine, easing out his team-mate Jonathan Rea to fourth, on a day of multiple red flags and interruptions of plans for long-runs.
The fastest Yamaha rider proved to be Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) who was a double race winner at PI in 2018 on his factory Ducati. He placed fifth, 0.457 seconds from Bautista’s best time.
Continuing a run of slightly unexpected but intriguing final pre-race weekend results, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) was sixth.
Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha) and Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) were seventh and eighth respectively. Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha) and Kawasaki privateer Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Kawasaki) rounded out the top runners, with the top ten riders covered by 0.921 seconds.
Leon Camier was fastest Moriwaki Althea Honda rider, in 13th place from 19 riders. Chaz Davies was still working through machine set-up and experience issues, and was therefore down in 14th place. Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda) who will wildcard at PI this weekend, was 19th.
Combined Final Testing Times
1 19 A. BAUTISTA ESP ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati Ducati Panigale V4 R 1’30.743 1’30.303 1’30.303 117
2 66 T. SYKES GBR BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW S1000 RR 1’31.300 1’30.539 1’30.539 0.236 0.236 105
3 91 L. HASLAM GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1’31.399 1’30.668 1’30.668 0.365 0.129 135
4 1 J. REA GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1’31.189 1’30.722 1’30.722 0.419 0.054 107
5 33 M. MELANDRI ITA GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Yamaha YZF R1 1’31.445 1’30.760 1’30.760 0.457 0.038 118
6 54 T. RAZGATLIOGLU TUR Turkish Puccetti Racing Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1’32.050 1’30.840 1’30.840 0.537 0.080 130
7 60 M. VAN DER MARK NED Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team Yamaha YZF R1 1’31.458 1’30.911 1’30.911 0.608 0.071 122
8 11 S. CORTESE GER GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Yamaha YZF R1 1’31.639 1’31.077 1’31.077 0.774 0.166 105
9 22 A. LOWES GBR Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team Yamaha YZF R1 1’31.146 1’31.168 1’31.146 0.843 0.069 131
10 81 J. TORRES ESP Team Pedercini Racing Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1’32.670 1’31.224 1’31.224 0.921 0.078 140
11 36 L. MERCADO ARG Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1’32.789 1’31.328 1’31.328 1.025 0.104 119
12 28 M. REITERBERGER GER BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW S1000 RR 1’31.992 1’31.376 1’31.376 1.073 0.048 96
13 2 L. CAMIER GBR Moriwaki Althea Honda Team Honda CBR1000RR 1’32.459 1’31.443 1’31.443 1.140 0.067 118
14 7 C. DAVIES GBR ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati Ducati Panigale V4 R 1’32.706 1’31.796 1’31.796 1.493 0.353 120
15 23 R. KIYONARI JPN Moriwaki Althea Honda Team Honda CBR1000RR 1’32.962 1’31.860 1’31.860 1.557 0.064 129
16 50 E. LAVERTY IRL Team Goeleven Ducati Panigale V4 R 1’32.797 1’31.986 1’31.986 1.683 0.126 70
17 21 M. RINALDI ITA BARNI Racing Team Ducati Panigale V4 R 1’33.402 1’32.083 1’32.083 1.780 0.097 128
18 52 A. DELBIANCO ITA Althea Mie Racing Team Honda CBR1000RR 1’33.949 1’32.979 1’32.979 2.676 0.896 59
19 17 T. HERFOSS AUS Penrite Honda Racing Honda CBR1000RR 1’34.961 1’33.130 1’33.130 2.827 0.151 7
