VOLUME 58 ISSUE 14 APRIL 6, 2021 P25
Haslam, overall sixth fastest
in the combined times. He
was second quickest on day
one but tenth on day two,
hence his overall top six. He
and his team-mate Alvaro
Bautista had much work to
do on their extensively mod-
ded Fireblade package after
a long winter in the HRC
workshops. Bautista was
eventually 16th on the com-
bined times, suffering a little
on track after a motocross
training accident last week
left him with a chest injury.
Consistently quick Tom
Sykes was sixth on day two
but seventh overall, on the
official new M1000RR BMW.
Alex Lowes came to this
test after a one-man Jerez out-
ing on the heavily revised KRT
Kawasaki after recovering from
a recent shoulder injury, and still
found it painful on day one. He
improved on day two, thanks to
some rest and a better bike set-
up, to go seventh fastest—eighth
overall—if almost a second from
his teammate Rea's best time.
Runaway 2021 WorldSSP
Champion Andrea Locatelli was
rewarded with a factory Yamaha
WorldSBK ride this year and
took the new-look R1 to ninth
place in the times after two full
days in Catalunya.
In a privateer but potent Team
GoEleven Ducati berth this year,
Chaz Davies scored himself
tenth-best time overall on the
strikingly colored V4 Panigale.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Ya-
maha) had to sit out most of day
two in isolation after testing posi-
tive for Coronavirus, but he was
still 11th fastest overall thanks to
his day-one time.
Gerloff's 2021 teammate
Kohta Nozane (GRT Yamaha)
tried a few new parts (like Gerloff
and almost all the other Yamaha
riders) as he brings another na-
tionality and rookie status to the
championship in 2021. He left
Catalunya 12th.
Former WorldSSP runner
Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Ducati
Racing Team) was 13th on his
privateer bike, one place up on
the hard-working new entrant
with a big MotoGP paddock
history—Tito Rabat (Barni Racing
Ducati).
With very little winter test time
and several Yamaha factory sea-
sons to wash away from his on-
track muscle memory, Michael
van der Mark (BMW Motorrad)
was 15th fastest on day two in his
first big "all-out" WorldSBK test
alongside his competitors. He
was another high-profile faller.
The new season starts as
summer approaches, between
May 21-23, at Motorland Ara-
gon—a venue some are heading
to for a test later this month.
Gordon Ritchie
1. Jonathan Rea (Kaw) 1:40.264
2. Scott Redding (Duc) 1:40.443
3. Garrett Gerloff (Yam) 1:40.497
4. Jonas Folger (BMW) 1:40.699
5. M. Ruben Rinaldi (Duc) 1:40.756
6. Leon Haslam (Hon) 1:40.900
7. Tom Sykes (BMW) 1:40.914
8. Alex Lowes (Kaw) 1:41.195
9. Andrea Locatelli (Yam) 1:41.258
10. Chaz Davies (Duc) 1:41.317
Scott Redding was on
the pace all test and
slotted into second
overall on the Aruba.it
Racing Ducati.
