Superbikes | Phillip Island test: Toprak Razgatlioglu is the fastest on the first day of testing

Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team) ends the first day of official testing at Phillip Island, characterized by rain showers and red flags, in the lead thanks to a time of 1.'30.740, ahead of Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) by 22 cents and Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) by 37..

Toprak Razgatlioglu was also the best in Portimao and remains the man to beat ahead of the first weekend, recording a great lap time which saw him ahead of Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team). Toprak, like his teammate Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team), focused on some improvements to the bike and tried to find the right balance between performance and tire life. Van der Mark was one of the two riders who did not improve during the afternoon and ended the day in seventh place.

Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK) worked on the bike's set-up after dedicating himself to the chassis and electronics in the previous tests in Jerez and Portimao and finished with the second fastest time, just 22 thousandths of a second behind Razgatlioglu. Sykes' teammate, Eugene Laverty (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) is eighth, less than a second from the best time and was concentrating on his race pace.

Even closer distances between Sykes and Loris Baz (Ten Kate Yamaha Racing): the Frenchman is third, just 15 thousandths behind the Briton and 37 from Razgatlioglu. Baz was one of the protagonists of the pre-season tests and hopes that his pace translates into the race too. The transalpine is therefore the best Independent rider and with him there are three Yamahas present in the top three places.

Reigning world champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing WorldSBK Team) continued to show off the pace he showed off in Jerez and is fourth fastest after focusing on tire performance ahead of the Yamaha Finance Australian Round. Rea hasn't won at Phillip Island since 2017. His teammate Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was ninth and crashed at Turn 4 without suffering any consequences.

Leon Haslam (Team HRC) rounds out the top five. Honda returns to WorldSBK as an official team and has focused on multiple aspects of the bike for the Round scheduled on what has been defined as the "favorite track". His teammate, Alvaro Bautista (Team HRC), is 15th, one second and eight tenths behind the first half. The Spaniard scored a hat-trick last year at Phillip Island and is aiming to do better tomorrow.

Scott Redding (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) was the fastest of the Ducatis and was sixth. The Briton is optimistic considering the results obtained by the Borgo Panigale bike in 2019 at Phillip Island, a track where he has always done well in the past in both Moto2™ and MotoGP™. Teammate Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) has the tenth fastest time and is one second and 373 thousandths behind Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Sandro Cortese (OUTDO Kawasaki TPR) on the ZX-10RR is 11th and precedes Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team GOELEVEN), Xavi Fores (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Maximilian Scheib (ORELAC Racing VerdNatura). Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team) is 16th and better than teammate Garrett Gerloff, while the returning Leon Camier (Barni Racing Team) is 18th fastest.

The second session was disturbed by rain while the first ended 30 minutes early due to the oil present on the track between turns 3 and 4 left by Takumi Takahashi (MIE Racing Althea Honda Team) who finished in 19th ^ position. More excitement awaits us tomorrow and you can experience it with the WorldSBK App.

These are the top six drivers in the combined standings.

1. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team) 1'30.740
2. Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) +0.022
3. Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) +0.037
4. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +0.256
5. Leon Haslam (Team HRC) +0.456
6. Scott Redding (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) +0.496
7. Michael Van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team) +0.700
8. Eugene Laverty (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) +0.845
9. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +0.925
10. Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) +1.373