Superbikes | Phillip Island: Pirelli balance sheet after the first three races

The first round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship was tinged with Ducati red thanks to the extraordinary performance of Alvaro Bautista who achieved a sensational hat-trick, putting everyone in line on his debut in the category: three races, introduced this year by the new regulations, in in which the Spaniard exploited the potential of his Panigale V4, adapting it to his riding style and the choices that Pirelli made available in Australia.

The Ducati rider was in fact the rider who best managed the tires of the Italian manufacturer, as demonstrated by the consistency in the lap time from the start to the end of the race.

Taking stock at the end of the round, Pirelli is quite satisfied with the performance of the DIABLO™ Superbike slicks which allowed the riders to regularly race, even at a high pace, on a notoriously difficult and complex circuit like that of Phillip Island.

Below we list the Pirelli solutions chosen by the riders for the WorldSBK races.

In Race1 and in the Tissot Race Superpole the riders essentially opted for the same solutions: at the rear they mounted the larger 200/65 tire in the medium development version W1049 (option A), while at the front there were only three riders to have made changes between one race and another: Leon Camier (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team) and Eugene Laverty (Team Goeleven) went from the development SC2 X1071 in increased size 125/70 (option C) to the standard SC1 in measures 125/70 (option B) while Michael Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) made exactly the opposite step.
The only rider to have used the standard SC1 in size 120/70 was Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK).

Also in Race2 the riders essentially confirmed the choices made in Race1, with the exception of Michael Van Der Mark who once again opted for the solution used in the Tissot Race Superpole.