Superbikes | Phillip Island Test, Day2: Bautista is the man to beat

The second and final day of testing at Phillip Island, Australia, where the 2019 season of the production-derived World Championship will begin this weekend, once again saw Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) putting everyone in line.

The Ducati rider improved by 0.440 seconds compared to yesterday, stopping the clock at 1'30.303, almost half a second faster than four-time world champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), fourth.

Although the weather conditions were different from yesterday, with higher temperatures and a light wind, the Ducati was uncatchable during both days: Bautista managed to emerge thanks to his experience and the Panigale V4 R.
Now, all that awaits us is to find out if the good things seen in the tests will translate into a solid weekend.

An interesting second time for Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) with a new bike that makes its return to the category this year.
The English rider precedes the two Kawasaki riders, Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea: even if
we certainly cannot talk about a drop on the part of the Northern Irishman, we cannot ignore the fact that Bautista this morning finished seven laps under 1'37.761 and this certainly won't make life easy for the reigning champion.

Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) continued to work on the setting of the bike and had a good session with his ZX-10RR and was the rider to complete the most laps (74).

Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) ended the day with fifth fastest time, and seems to have found the configuration.
Instead, Sandro Cortese finished eighth (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK).

Yesterday Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) had technical problems that stopped him in the pits but this morning he was able to gain more and more confidence with the V4 R even if he finished 1.5 seconds behind his teammate and leader of the day.

The crash at Turn 1 at around 12pm four laps from the start prevented Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) from completing many laps. Today's session was not easy for either Yamaha rider. The Englishman finished ninth while Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) finished seventh. Both riders' program for today included balance work as the Australian track can be tricky.
The one who can be satisfied with this Tuesday of testing is undoubtedly the BMW tram as both Sykes and Markus Reiterberger tested different solutions for the chassis and both met the expected expectations.

The Moriwaki Althea Honda Team had a less easy day as it concentrated on improving its performance. The team tried to find a good basic setup to be competitive on the Australian track. Leon Camier (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team) placed in the top 10 while Ryuichi Kiyonari finished 15th.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) confirmed his pace and speed by placing himself in sixth position. The Turkish rider tested the latest updates for his ZX-10RR as did Team Pedercini Racing's Jordi Torres, while for Tati Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) the priority was working to control tire wear. Eugene Laverty (Team Goeleven) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team) made an important step forward despite the technical problems the Italian had to deal with at the end of the first session.

Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team) and wildcard Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda Racing) close the timesheets.