Gordon Ritchie | November 20, 2020
Day Two
With the first visible signs of a new style Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR appearing on the second and final day of WorldSBK testing at Jerez Jonathan Rea (KRT) scored the fastest lap of all with a 1:38.324 – just outside the 1’38.247 track best from the 2020 race weekend.
In a flurry of late activity, qualifying tires brought the lap times down as the clock timed out.
Jonathan Rea and the new Kawasaki ZX-10RR went top on the final day at Jerez.
Early in the final day (on an X tire according to the team) Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha) took what was described as a ‘YMRE’ test bike to the third best time of all, behind only Rea and the HRC MotoGP test rider Stefan Bradl, making him second in the WorldSBK rankings.
Running between one bike with 2020 bodywork and one with the new-look fairing today, Alex Lowes (KRT) was third fastest WorldSBK rider, again setting his best pace late in the final session. He was 0.562 seconds behind his team-mate Rea.
Opening day quickest rider Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) was finally fourth best Superbike rider, as he adapts to a more modern machine than his 2019 spec bike. He also set a fast time on the YMRE development bike in the afternoon, but not quite as fast as Razgatlioglu.
Razgatlioglu again stuck it on its nose for second.
Back on his current Pata Yamaha (with a different transponder number) Razgatlioglu was strictly speaking also the fifth fastest Superbike rider (and was ranked as such on the circuit’s live timing) all despite a T1 crash without injury. For clarity we will consider him as second fastest WorldSBK competitor, as he was still riding a development R1 Superbike at that time.
Continuing to push forward on his HRC Honda Leon Haslam had a happier time on race tyres than his team-mate Alvaro Bautista, with Haslam fifth best rider and Bautista eighth today – the latter 1.907 seconds from Rea’s best time. Both Fireblade riders were concentrating on back-to-back testing and trying to find real world improvements with their existing package as much as using new material, especially after such a tough Covid-19 affected first season of development.
There have been some wholesale changes to the WorldSBK line-up already, most noticeably at this test the runaway WorldSSP champion in 2020, Andrea Locatelli, inside the official Yamaha Pata team alongside Razgatlioglu. The Italian rider made a good jump from day one to day two on his R1at Jerez, finishing up sixth overall.
Lowes went third quickest on the Kawasaki.
One place behind Locatelli was the Independent Kawasaki Puccetti Racing Ninja of new WorldSBK rider Lucas Mahias – who was finally the closest rival to Locatelli in the 2020 WorldSSP fight.
With Bautista eighth fastest, another new WorldSBK rider, Kohta Nozane, took his GRT Yamaha into ninth and the 1’40 bracket on the last day at Jerez, finishing just in front of former WorldSSP podium placer Isaac Vinales (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki). The final rider in the WorldSBK timing list was Outdo TPR Kawasaki rider, Loris Cresson.
Another test session, for some of the top riders but not all, will take place next week at Motorland Aragon, between 25 and 26 November.
2020 Jerez WorldSBK Test Final Times
| 1 |
Jonathan Rea |
(Kaw) |
1:38.324 |
| 2 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu |
(Yam) |
1:38.855 |
| 3 |
Alex Lowes |
(Kaw) |
1:38.887 |
| 4 |
Garrett Gerloff |
(Yam) |
1:39.172 |
| 5 |
Leon Haslam |
(Hon) |
1:39.852 |
Day One
After a first day of WorldSBK testing in real-world preparation for the 2021 season Garret Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) led the small but high-quality field of existing riders and some rookies, with a best lap of 1:39.571. This put him a significant 0.384 seconds up on six-times champion Jonathan Rea (KRT), who was the only other WorldSBK rider under the 1’40 mark.
Garrett Gerloff shot right to the top on day one of the final WorldSBK test at Jerez.
Gerloff was just over a second slower than the only MotoGP bike at these tests, ridden by Stefan Bradl. The German rider was the fastest of all on day one, with a 1:38.562 on an HRC test team Honda.
Gerloff’s latest step forward comes shortly after he stood in for none other than MotoGP megastar Valentino Rossi for a day at Valencia, having already scored three podiums in his 2020 WorldSBK rookie season.
The first official Yamaha WorldSBK bike was third today, ridden by Toprak Razgatlioglu, and the second official Kawasaki was taken into fourth place by Alex Lowes. Both KRT riders hit some trouble that halted their progress in the morning but got going again to finish nearer the top than the bottom of the timesheets.
Leon Haslam, robbed of track time on the latest Fireblade in its first year of real race action, stayed out to the end of the day on his HRC Honda and ended up fifth fastest. Like his team-mate Haslam, Bautista tried out many items in the back-to-back fashion that the intense racing calendar would not allow in the race season. He was sixth.
Behind the more experienced WorldSBK riders, three WorldSBK rookies tried out against their 2021 peer group. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha) was seventh best Superbiker – almost exactly one second from Gerloff’s leading non-MotoGP time – with Lucas Mahias (Puccetti Kawasaki) eighth and then Isaac Vinales ninth.
New GRT Yamaha rider for 2021, Kohta Nozane (GRT) and Loris Cresson (Outdo TPR Kawasaki) completed the 11 WorldSBK riders on track today – although Cresson had a fast crash entering T1.
The second day of texting action gets underway at Jerez on Wednesday 18th.
2020 Jerez WorldSBK Test Results—Day One
MotoGP
Stefan Bradl (HRC Test Team) 1:38.696
WorldSBK
| 1 |
Garrett Gerloff |
(Yam) |
1:39.571 |
| 2 |
Jonathan Rea |
(Kaw) |
1:39.995 |
| 3 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu |
(Yam) |
1:40.055 |
| 4 |
Alex Lowes |
(Kaw) |
1:40.116 |
| 5 |
Leon Haslam |
(Hon) |
1:40.294 |
For more WorldSBK news and results, click here
