11/18/2020 |
Gordon Ritchie |
WorldSBK
Image: GeeBee Images
The reigning and six-time WorldSBK King Jonathan Rea finished the second day of the Jerez winter test just a tenth of his pole time from the summer race and 0.015 seconds ahead of HRC MotoGP test rider Stefan Bradl on his MotoGP RC213V.
Rea’s final lap of 1,38,324 on qualifying tires was enough to land in first place, while Kawasaki teammate Alex Lowes also put in a late boost to finish third with 1,388,887.
The KRT riders were shared by Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu, who was half a second slower than Rea and only a fraction ahead of Lowes.
At the beginning of the last day (according to the team on an X-tire) Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha) rode the test bike called “YMRE” for the third best time of all, behind only Rea and the HRC MotoGP test rider Stefan Bradl finished second in the WorldSBK Ranking list. Alex Lowes (KRT) rode between a 2020 body bike and one with the new fairing today and was the third fastest WorldSBK rider, setting his best pace again late in the final session. He was 0.562 seconds behind his teammate Rea.
The fastest rider on the opening day, Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) ended up being the fourth best superbike rider as he adapts to a more modern machine than his 2019 motorcycle. He also drove a quick time on the YMRE development bike in the afternoon, but not quite as fast as Razgatlioglu.
Back on his current Pata Yamaha (with a different transponder number), Razgatlioglu was actually also the fifth fastest Superbike rider (and was classified as such in the live timing of the circuit), despite a T1 crash without injury. For the sake of clarity, we’ll consider him the 2nd fastest WorldSBK competitor, as he was still riding a development R1 superbike at the time.
Honda Leon Haslam, who continues to push his HRC, had a happier time on race tires than his teammate Alvaro Bautista. Haslam was fifth today and Bautista eighth – the latter 1.907 seconds after Rea’s best time. Both Fireblade drivers focused on back-to-back testing, trying to find real-world improvements with their existing package, as well as new material, especially after such a tough initial development in Covid-19.
There have already been some major changes to the WorldSBK line-up, most notably in this test of runaway WorldSSP World Champion Andrea Locatelli on the official Yamaha Pata team alongside Razgatlioglu in 2020. The Italian rider made a good jump on his R1at Jerez from day one to day two and finished sixth overall.
One place behind Locatelli was the Independent Kawasaki Puccetti Racing Ninja of new WorldSBK rider Lucas Mahias, who was finally Locatelli’s closest rival in the 2020 WorldSSP fight.
With Bautista in eighth fastest, Kohta Nozane, another new WorldSBK rider, drove his GRT Yamaha in ninth and 1:40 places on the final day in Jerez, finishing right in front of former WorldSSP podium winner Isaac Vinales (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) . The last rider on the WorldSBK timesheet was Outdo TPR Kawasaki rider Loris Cresson.
Another test session for some of the top drivers, but not all, will be held at Motorland Aragon from November 25th to 26th.
Last combined best lap times
1 1 JONATHAN REA (KRT) 1: 38,324
2 54 SOIL RAZGATLIOGLU (YAMAHA PATA / YMRE test) 1: 38.855
3 22 ALEX LOWES (KRT) 1: 38.887
4 31 GARRETT GERLOFF (BRT YAMAHA) 1: 39,172
5 91 LEON HASLAM (HONDA HRC) 1: 39.852
6 55 ANDREA LOCATELLI (PATA YAMAHA) 1: 39.878
7 44 LUCAS MAHIAS (KAWASAKI PUCCETTI) 1: 40,195
8 19 ALVARO BAUTISTA HONDA HRC) 1: 40.232
9 3 KOHTA NOZAN (BRT YAMAHA) 1: 40.670
10 32 ISAAC VINALES (ORELAC KAWSAKI) 1: 40.893
11 84 LORIS CRESSON (OUTDO KAWASAKI TPR) 1: 43.187