Gordon Ritchie | January 25, 2016
Alex Lowes got reaccustomed to his YZF-R1 after his late 20156 shoulder injury.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
Just before the majority of the major teams head to Jerez to test on 26 and 27 January the official Pata Yamaha and Aruba.it Racing – Ducati WSB teams lapped at former WorldSBK championship venue Portimao from 22-23 January.
Yamaha has the greater amount of work to do as they are racing the full WorldSBK version of the crossplane R1 that has been so successful in other championships last year.
2014 Superbike World Championship winner Sylvain Guintoli knows there is a long way to go for him and his machine but in going around a half a second slower than the official Ducatis it is a case of so far, so good. “We still have a lot of work to do but we have a lot of components to test,” he stated after two days in Portugal, the second of which delivered ideal weather and track conditions. “We are still very early in what we want to do. It is important to carry on the development and find a good base that we can use in Phillip Island for the first round. We were lucky with the weather, especially today so it was a great couple of days. Lap times were OK but it is wintertime, and once again we were in the mix but there is a lot more to come for us but for now we have to stay focused on development and not concentrate on lap times. We need to build our base and our package and I am happy enough with that.”
Guintoli used the all-new 2016 Öhlins cost-capped front forks and found an immediate happy zone of feel and feedback. “For me they feel good, a bit lighter. The overall feedback is good, initially, and now we have to investigate more and see what will happen after Jerez.”
Guintoli also tested swingarms and steering items.
Pata Yamaha will join the rest of their main rivals at Jerez for more testing.
Alex Lowes swapped recovery regimes for the racetrack as he climbed back on his R1 again after a nasty injury to his left shoulder in a crash at the final Jerez test of the 2015 calendar year. His performance matched his team-mate for lap times and he set well over 100 laps over two days.
His injury will take some time to recover fully but he will also be heading to Jerez to test.
Not an entirly new bike for Davies in 2016, but he still had plenty to test at Portimao.
Ducati had Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano out on track, with Davies also using new electronics, as well as new and noisier exhaust pipes, allowable now under the 2016 rules.
The Welsh rider, runner-up to Rea in 2015, said of his Portimao experiences, “Yes, it was good, successful. We had two good days and I was happy. Not too many people here but I felt we were going quite well. We had some new stuff and more importantly it seems to be going in the right direction. On day one we were kind of working through the motions and getting the (power) delivery to my liking.”
Davies explained the developments in electronics he was trying out in Portugal.
“Just different strategies and a different way of tuning what we had before. Trying to get it a bit better. On the tuning side of things the options are endless and one big focal point this winter was trying to get something that works just a little bit better at different times during the race. It seems that the first impressions are quite good anyway.”
