Reigning WorldSBK champ Jonathan Rea reversed yesterday’s order at the top of the Jerez WorldSBK timesheets, beating Alex Lowes by two tenths to set the fastest time so far.
Rea banged in a 1’39.160 on race tyres to head off a 1’39.372 effort from Lowes with Leon Haslam third for the second day running. The KRT new-boy was three-tenths slower than his old friend.
Lowes set his time on a qualifier, after testing a maze of new settings and some new parts. Lowes got through all the planed work and now heads to Portimao hoping to be equally fast there.
Rea had tried a qualifying tyre on the final day but he set a faster lap on a race tyre, as did his team-mate Leon Haslam, who posted a 1.39.502 for third place overall.
Much better track conditions on day two, partly due to better weather conditions, allowed more riders to get settled in after what was a peculiarly grey and unsettling first day for some. The partially re-surfaced track improved on the racing line allowing the best times to drop as the new asphalt bedded in.
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Ducati) placed himself fourth on the all-new Ducati V4R, as he makes the transition from MotoGP to WorldSBK. According to the official Ducati team Chaz Davies suffered a muscle spasm in his back that prevented him from riding for much of the second day, and he ended up 10th.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) was impressive once again in fifth place but rookie WorldSBK rider Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) overcame his first WorldSBK crash to post sixth best Superbike time, and be second fastest Yamaha rider on the final day.
Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha) was seventh, and Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) eighth.
The Barni Racing Ducati V4R of Michael Ruben Rinaldi took him to ninth on day two. Eugene Laverty placed his GoEleven Ducati 12th.
With a transponder now fitted to his all-new machine, Tom Sykes (BMW SMR) fell at high speed and his bike was too badly damaged to complete a full day of action. He was uninjured but this crash left him 14th, and slower than his pace on the first day, when he had no transponder fitted.
Sixteen riders attended the Jerez test, with only the official Moriwaki Althea Hondas of Leon Camier and Ryuichi Kiyonari missing so far.
The fastest WorldSSP rider was Federico Caricasulo, on a Bardahl Evan Bros Yamaha, with a 1’42.529.
Almost all of the Superbike teams that were at Jerez will relocate to Portimao now, for two more days of testing on Sunday and Monday – the 27th and 28th of January.
