IN
THE
WIND
P28
Bautista Dominates Final WorldSBK Testing
A
lvaro Bautista (Aruba.
it Ducati) continued to
find unmatched speed and
advantages from his all-new
Ducati V4R on the second
day of WorldSBK testing
at Phillip Island, Australia,
February 18-19, scoring the
best lap time again. The rac-
ing season gets underway
this weekend at Phillip Island,
February 23-24.
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, February 22-24.
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 tires,
is 1:30.848. Nobody has had ac-
cess to qualifying tires.
In the overall two-day com-
bined standings, 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 Bau-
tista's best time.
Continuing a run of slightly un-
expected 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 pri-
vateer Jordi Torres (Team Peder-
cini Kawasaki) rounded out the
top runners, with the top ten rid-
ers 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 setup and experience
issues, and was therefore down
in 14th place. Troy Herfoss (Pen-
rite Honda) who will wildcard at
Phillip Island was 19th.
In WorldSSP, Randy Krumme-
nacher (Bardahl Evan Bros Ya-
maha) hung on to a confidence-
boosting top slot in the overall
test ranking at Phillip Island,
outpacing his own teammate
Federico Caricasulo by 0.201
seconds.
MV Agusta Reparto Corse
rider Raffaele De Rosa scored
the third-best time on his three-
cylinder machine, splitting a fee
of the most fancied Yamahas in
the process.
Yamaha GMT94 pairing Jules
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Ducati)
emerged as the quickest rider in
WorldSBK testing leading up to
the opening round this weekend at
Phillip Island. PHOTO: WORLDSBK.COM
