The WorldSBK material finally
turned up, spread across three
containers. One arrived at 7 on
Monday night, and the others
very early on Tuesday morning.
Hence, the tests happened, if
not in the planned format.
The races at Phillip Island
may not be run in their planned
durations or formats either, as
the recently resurfaced circuit's
grip levels exacerbated the tires'
propensity to blister at the edges
of full performance.
So, watch this space; there
could be news incoming by
Friday at least of whether the
races are kept as they are, cut in
half with mandatory tire-change
pitstops, or just shortened races.
In the mad single test day, with
some WorldSBK riders doing
90 laps, the fastest was Toprak
Razgatlioglu on his Rokit BMW
Motorrad machine, setting a
1:28.511 lap to edge out the pre
-
cious new talents of rookie rider
Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati) by
just 0.074 of a second and multi-
season factory Yamaha rider
Andrea Locatelli (Pata Prometeon
Yamaha) by 0.324 of a second.
Returning paddock maverick
Andrea Iannone (Go Eleven
Ducati) was fourth overall, and
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing
Team) was fifth for four different
bikes inside the top five.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Moto
-
Corsa Ducati) was sixth overall,
and the now almost fully recov-
ered double World Champion
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Ducati)
seventh.
Scott Redding placed eighth,
with the top 10 rounded out
by Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT
Yamaha) and new KRT rider Axel
Bassani.
The midfield pace was so
tight that from Iannone in fourth
place down to 10th-placed Mi-
chael van der Mark (Rokit BMW),
only 0.715 of a second covered
all 10 riders. Even the injured
Iker Lecuona (HRC Honda) in
19th place was still within two
seconds of Razgatlioglu's fast
-
est time.
Lecuona will be checked
again before the first round after
suffering a collarbone disloca-
tion.
Gordon Ritchie
WorldSBK
1. Toprak Razgatlioglu (BMW) 1:28.511s
2. Nicolo Bulega (Ducati) +0.074s
3. Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha) +0.324s
4. Andrea Iannone (Ducati) +0.490s
5. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) +0.700s
VOLUME ISSUE FEBRUARY , P33
Michael Ruben Rinaldi
seems to have slotted into
his new/old team just fine,
with sixth at Phillip Island.
Axel Bassani's new
livery with KRT will be
hard to miss.
