Gordon Ritchie | February 19, 2019
2019 WorldSBK Test Results, Phillip Island, Day Two. — 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 S 1000 RR of Tom Sykes—was second, setting up some exciting possibilities for race weekend.
Bautista set a personal best of 1:30.303, to get a further 0.236 seconds clear of Sykes. To put this in perspective, the current lap record, set in a competitive race on regular tires, is 1:30.848. Nobody has had access to qualifying tires.
In the overall combined WorldSBK test results for the two-day test, Leon Haslam proved to be third fastest on his KRT machine, easing out his teammate 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.
Toprak in the top six
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. Next to him, Chaz Davies was still working through machine set-up and experience issues and was therefore down in 14th place. Finally, Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda) who will wildcard at PI this weekend, was 19th.
2019 WorldSBK Test Results, Phillip Island, Combined Test Times
1 19 A. BAUTISTA (Ducati) 1:30.303
2 66 T. SYKES (BMW) 1:30.539 +0.236
3 91 L. HASLAM (Kawasaki) 1:30.668 +0.365
4 1 J. REA (Kawasaki) 1:30.722 +0.419
5 33 M. MELANDRI (Yamaha) 1:30.760 +0.457
6 54 T. RAZGATLIOGLU (Kawasaki) 1:30.840 +0.537
7 60 M. VAN DER MARK (Yamaha) 1:30.911 +0.608
8 11 S. CORTESE (Yamaha) 1:31.077 +0.774
9 22 A. LOWES (Yamaha) 1:31.146 +0.843
10 81 J. TORRES (Kawasaki) 1:31.224 +0.921
11 36 L. MERCADO (Kawasaki) 1:31.328 +1.025
12 28 M. REITERBERGER (BMW) 1:31.376 +1.073
13 2 L. CAMIER (Honda) 1:31.443 +1.140
14 7 C. DAVIES (Ducati) 1:31.796 +1.493
15 23 R. KIYONARI (Honda) 1:31.860 +1.557
16 50 E. LAVERTY (Ducati) 1:31.986 +1.683
17 21 M. RINALDI (Ducati) 1:32.083 +1.780
18 52 A. DELBIANCO (Honda) 1:32.979 +0.896
19 17 T. HERFOSS (Honda) 1:33.130 +2.827
2019 WorldSBK Test Results, Phillip Island, Day One. — Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) led the first day of the final official WorldSBK tests before the start of the 2019 WorldSBK season, setting a 1’30.743 best lap to take himself 0.403 seconds clear of the official Yamaha of Alex Lowes.
Bautista’s Panigale V4R set consistently high top speeds down the main straight at PI, almost hitting 315kmph on three occasions, partly by making use of his bike’s very high rev ceiling.
Jonathan Rea (KRT) suffered a crash at turn ten in the opening session, finishing third overall on the first day’s ranking.
Tom Sykes (BMW) proved himself to be one of the few riders able to improve their best time in the windy afternoon session, taking the new official S1000RR BMW to fourth best time, just over half a second from Bautista’s best.
Leon Haslam was just behind Sykes on the second official Kawasaki, also improving his best time in the second session of the day.
The top six on day one was rounded out by the GRT Yamaha of Marco Melandri. He was 0.702 seconds behind Bautista.
MvdM Up Next
Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha) was just a tenth behind Melandri, in seventh overall, with the final Yamaha rider Sandro Cortese in eighth place.
Meanwhile, younger riders Markus Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) completed the top ten.
The top Honda rider, as expected at this stage, was Leon Camier (Moriwaki Althea). He was 11th fastest, and 1.716 seconds from the best time.
Chaz Davies struggled on his official Ducati again, ending up 13th, with Eugene Laverty (Go Eleven Ducati) 15th. Local wildcard Penrite Honda rider Troy Herfoss was 19th of the 19 riders, with a 1’34.961 best lap.
One more day of testing remains before the new-look three-race weekend starts on Friday the 22nd of February.
2019 WorldSBK Test Results: Day One, Phillip Island
1 19 BAUTISTA Alvaro ESP ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati Ducati Panigale V4 R 1’30.743 1’31.149 1’30.743 61
2 22 LOWES Alex GBR Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team Yamaha YZF R1 1’31.146 1’31.798 1’31.146 0.403 0.403 77
3 1 REA Jonathan GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1’31.189 1’31.551 1’31.189 0.446 0.043 58
4 66 SYKES Tom GBR BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW S1000 RR 1’31.740 1’31.300 1’31.300 0.557 0.111 57
5 91 HASLAM Leon GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1’31.886 1’31.399 1’31.399 0.656 0.099 61
6 33 MELANDRI Marco ITA GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Yamaha YZF R1 IND 1’31.445 1’31.858 1’31.445 0.702 0.046 62
7 60 VAN DER MARK Michael NED Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team Yamaha YZF R1 1’31.458 1’32.086 1’31.458 0.715 0.013 61
8 11 CORTESE Sandro GER GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Yamaha YZF R1 IND 1’31.639 1’31.808 1’31.639 0.896 0.181 57
9 28 REITERBERGER Markus GER BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW S1000 RR 1’31.992 1’32.669 1’31.992 1.249 0.353 50
10 54 RAZGATLIOGLU Toprak TUR Turkish Puccetti Racing Kawasaki ZX-10RR IND 1’32.425 1’32.050 1’32.050 1.307 0.058 71
11 2 CAMIER Leon GBR Moriwaki Althea Honda Team Honda CBR1000RR 1’32.459 1’32.885 1’32.459 1.716 0.409 60
12 81 TORRES Jordi ESP Team Pedercini Racing Kawasaki ZX-10RR IND 1’32.679 1’32.670 1’32.670 1.927 0.211 74
13 7 DAVIES Chaz GBR ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati Ducati Panigale V4 R 1’33.204 1’32.706 1’32.706 1.963 0.036 56
14 36 MERCADO Leandro ARG Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki ZX-10RR IND 1’32.789 1’33.231 1’32.789 2.046 0.083 58
15 50 LAVERTY Eugene IRL Team Goeleven Ducati Panigale V4 R IND 1’33.353 1’32.797 1’32.797 2.054 0.008 57
16 23 KIYONARI Ryuichi JPN Moriwaki Althea Honda Team Honda CBR1000RR 1’33.171 1’32.962 1’32.962 2.219 0.165 68
17 21 RINALDI Michael Ruben ITA BARNI Racing Team Ducati Panigale V4 R IND 1’33.843 1’33.402 1’33.402 2.659 0.440 69
18 52 DELBIANCO Alessandro ITA Althea Mie Racing Team Honda CBR1000RR IND 1’33.965 1’33.949 1’33.949 3.206 0.547 53
19 17 HERFOSS Troy AUS Penrite Honda Racing Honda CBR1000RR IND 1’34.961 1’35.475 1’34.961 4.218 1.012 27
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