Florian Marino rode on day
one of the tests on the Bimota
KB998 in his capacity as official
team test rider.
Next best behind the two offi
-
cial Bimota riders was Jonathan
Rea on the R1 Yamaha—with his
new crew chief Oriol 'Uri' Pallares
in place of former boss Andrew
Pitt for the very first time. Rea
set his best of 1:38.452 on day
two.
Garrett Gerloff used several
Q tires on his second outing on
the factory Kawasaki but ran into
the limit of pure pace on stickier
rubber, finishing as the fourth
fastest Superbike rider.
"The test was good," said
Gerloff after both days had been
completed. "For sure, I think we
made one step compared to the
last time we were here, so that
feels good. We are still looking
for more, but I am pretty happy
with how it went here. I used Q
tires because I am trying to work
on my qualifying pace—that is
what I am still a little frustrated
about. I feel like I get to a wall,
and I cannot go any faster. But it
has been like that on each bike I
have ridden in WorldSBK, so it is
not this bike. It is nice to be run
-
ning in the official colors at this
test and to have everything like
we can see it now."
Sam Lowes, with new staff
inside his Marc VDS Ducati team,
ran a completely different setup
compared to 2024, his Ducati
going fourth quickest on the final
day.
Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha)
had a very fast crash at the left-
handed turn seven in the morn
-
ing of day two, destroying one
bike and escaping uninjured but
was heavily beaten and bruised
by the experience. He took to his
second bike later in the test, set-
ting his best time on day two.
Marcel Schroetter was the
quickest WorldSSP rider on his
WRP Ducati for the first time. Ex-
pected new Renzi Corse Ducati
signing Valetin Debise was the
next best.
Kaito Toba was the third
fastest WorldSSP rider, and a
busy one at that, as he rode four
different Honda 600s in all. Two
came directly from Japan for
evaluation, and two were the ex
-
isting bikes from the existing MIE
team. Andrej Vostatek also rode
a second WRP Ducati.
Gordon Ritchie
OVERALL (Top 5)
1. Alex Lowes (Bim) 1:38.355
2. Axel Bassani (Bim) 1:38.358
3. Jonathan Rea (Yam) 1:38.452
4. Garrett Gerloff (Kaw) 1:38.839
5. Sam Lowes (Duc) 1:38.890
WIND
IN THE
P32
Johann Zarco and the
Honda RC213V put some
MotoGP flavor into the
WorldSBK test.
Garrett Gerloff went fourth
quickest on the Kawasaki.
