Australia WorldSBK Test
T
he tall figure of Toprak
Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha)
secured the fastest time of the
opening day with his very last
lap, which played out in WorldS-
BK testing at Australia's Philip
Island, February 23-24. His
1.30.740 was 0.022 of a second
faster than the second-best rider,
on a day that featured several
red-flag stoppages.
Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad)
scored the second-best time of
day one, his 1:30.762 lap easing
out the tall figure of his old team-
mate from their Kawasaki days,
Loris Baz (Ten Kate Yamaha) into
third place. Baz was just 0.037
seconds from Razgatlioglu.
The merest fall of rain, just
as the WorldSBK riders were
about to head out to complete
the afternoon test session, held
back proceedings for a time, but
eventually they all took to the
track for the second time, with
Jonathan Rea (KRT) soon lifting
himself above the morning's fast-
est rider, Sykes. Scott Redding
(Aruba.it Ducati) was up to third
at this stage.
After the rain cleared, the
final top three was Razgatlioglu,
Sykes and Baz, all pushing Rea
into fourth place on the largely
unchanged 2020 Kawasaki.
A top-five finish for Honda
and Leon Haslam saw the HRC
Fireblade less than half a second
back from the best, and one
position ahead of Redding, who
ended day one sixth.
Michael van der Mark (Pata
Yamaha) was seventh and the
ever-improving mix of Eugene
Laverty and S 1000 RR BMW
was eighth. After a late crash,
Alex Lowes was ninth and Chaz
Davies (Aruba.it Ducati) 10th.
The new MIE Honda of Takumi
Takahashi did not make it out in
the afternoon after his bike suf-
fered a technical failure, which
caused a significant oil leak on
the track at T3/4, ending the
morning session ahead of the
scheduled time.
IN
THE
WIND
P34
Toprak
Razgatlioglu (Pata
Yamaha) is, so far,
the top rider in
WorldSBK testing
at Philip Island.
PHOTO: GOLD & GOOSE
