Superbikes | Phillip Island FP: Bautista takes the first day of free practice

The 2019 edition of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship officially kicked off tonight (Italian time) at Phillip Island with the first two free practice sessions which reconfirmed what was seen in the tests earlier in the week.

Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) is in fact still leading the combined standings, ahead of the two official Kawasakis of Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and Leon Haslam.

It seems that the challenge between the Spaniard and the Campionissimo began on the first official day of the championship.

The gap between the two is very minimal: just 0.014 seconds separate them, with Haslam managing to improve a lot from the first to the second session.
On the other hand, Chaz Davies continues to struggle, not yet in full physical form and with some difficulties in adapting to the bike, he finishes in 14th place.

Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) continues to develop by pushing his BMW to the maximum but without recording a significant improvement in the afternoon test and confirms the fourth fastest time of the day.
His teammate Markus Reiterberger is also working to exploit the full potential of the German bike but fails to make any progress during the last 20 minutes, stopping in eighth place, more than half a second behind the day's leader Bautista.

Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) jumped to fifth position after overcoming the difficulties he had in FP1. The English rider continues to improve on his times despite having suffered a crash halfway through the afternoon session. Dutch rider Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) also managed to make an important step forward in FP2 despite remaining in ninth position.

After being the fastest Yamaha rider of the morning, Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) concludes his first day of free practice in the premier class with the sixth fastest time. The German seems to have understood how to handle his YZF R1. However, his teammate Marco Melandri is still unable to shine, only in 13th position.

Leon Camier (Moriwaki Althea HONDA Team) confirms the potential of the bike from the winged manufacturer by consolidating the good times recorded in FP1 and placing himself in sixth place in the combined standings. The other rider from the Japanese manufacturer, Kiyonari is one of the big names back in the championship and is still trying to get back into the rhythm. During the afternoon session the Honda rider crashed as the session was coming to an end.
The top 10 is completed by the Turkish rider Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) who, with his Kawasaki, is 0.800 seconds behind the leader of the standings.
The first day is over, Alvaro Bautista has officially started his adventure in the WorldSBK Championship and Jonathan Rea must start to worry because the challenge will be fierce. Leon Haslam, Tom Sykes and Alex Lowes will certainly not stand by and watch the battle between the Spaniard and the Northern Irishman but will join the race towards victory.

The next events will see the riders take to the track today at midnight (Italian time) with the third free practice session, and then tomorrow starting at 2am with the Tissot-Superpole.
The race will instead start at 5:00.