IN
THE
WIND
P38
Rea Tops WordSBK Catalunya Test
K
awasaki Racing Team rider
and current WorldSBK Cham-
pion, Jonathan Rea, topped the
two-day Catalunya WorldSBK test
as track action resumes for all the
teams for the first time since the
Covid-19 outbreak (some riders
had tested at Misano last week).
Rea set a new lap record of
1:40.450 to better Aruba.it Ducati
rider and title rival Scott Redding
by 0.156 of a second, with Tom
Sykes (BMW Motorrad) third,
0.506 down on Rea's pace.
Redding's teammate Alex
Lowes was fourth ahead of Phillip
Island race-one winner Toprak
Razgatlioglu.
Redding topped day one
on Wednesday, July 8, with a
1:41.737, besting Razgatlioglu by
just 0.044 of a second.
Eugene Laverty (BMW Motor-
rad WorldSBK Team) rode to sixth
on day two, one place up on early
2021 BMW signing Michael van
der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldS-
BK Team).
Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing
Yamaha), a tip to replace him in-
side the official Yamaha team next
season, took his privateer bike to
eighth place in the time sheets,
one place up on the works
Panigale of Chaz Davies (Aruba.it
Racing – Ducati).
The top 10 was completed by
another Ducati rider, Leandro
Mercado (MotoCorsa Racing
Ducati).
American Garrett Gerloff (GRT
Yamaha) got to beat both full
HRC factory Honda riders into
11th place, as first Leon Haslam
crashed hard and lost track time
on day one, then both he and his
teammate Alvaro Bautista were
not allowed to ride on the final
morning until a team video confer-
ence was made with technical
staff back in Japan. Only riding
in the much hotter afternoon
session of day two, Haslam was
finally 12th and Bautista 14th over-
all, Bautista only because of his
best day-one time.
In the WorldSSP Champion-
ship tests, three riders joined the
17 Superbike runners with Jules
Cluzel (GMT94) the fastest SSP
runner, his teammate Corentin
Perolari one behind and Steven
Odendaal from the EAB Ten
Kate Honda team the last-placed
WorldSSP rider.
Gordon Ritchie
Jonathan Rea was
in scintillating
form at Catalunya,
setting the fastest
overall time.
PHOTOS: GOLD & GOOSE
