Rookie tops opening day of Jerez WorldSBK Test

WorldSBK Jerez Test

World Supersport Champion Nicolo Bulega proved that his dominant 2023 season was down to a lot more than just having the largest engined bike on that grid when he slotted in a qualifying tyre to top the first day of WorldSBK testing.  Bulega was more than a second quicker than the established stars of the World Superbike grid and has started the way he hopes to continue, but no doubt the rest of the field might have something to say about that on Thursday. It is also one thing to do the pace on a Q tyre, it will be understanding how to manage the tyre wear and then ride on used race tyres that Bulega will need to concentrate on.

Nicolo Bulega

“I had a good feeling today. I could push almost 100%, so this is important. I had fun today with my bike and my team. We are starting to understand each other well, we’re on the right path, and we just need to spend more time on the bike.  Today, I focused on my position on the bike because I need to adapt my body to the bike. We tried some different things to have a good base. Tomorrow, we’ll continue the work we did today, try to keep improving, and maybe improve with used tyres.”

On the other side of the aruba.it garage there was little to smile about. Defending World Champion Alvaro Bautista reporting that he has been struggling a lot in the off-season with the pain from a neck injury he sustained a nasty crash during a WorldSBK Test here at Jerez. That resulted in a later diagnosis of spinal trauma consisting of a C6-C7 hernia and C5-C6 disc protrusions. This is also what was severely troubling the Spaniard during his MotoGP wildcard at Sepang, where he reported that he had severe restrictions through left-hand corners. Bautista is suffering with a lack of power through his left arm along with the numbness and tingling consistent with a disc pressing on a nerve. This is a truly debilitating condition and if no improvement comes soon one would expect the Spaniard to have to undergo surgery. He still recorded 68 laps on Wednesday with a best of 1m39.847, but unlike his young team-mate he didn’t run a qualifier.

An outlier amongst the WorldSBK and WorldSSP machines on track was Stefan Bradl on the HRC MotoGP machine. The German was second quickest on the day, more than a second behind Bulega, despite the MotoGP machine being 20 km/h quicker through the speed trap.

Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes was third quickest on Wednesday, fractionally ahead of the Rokit BMW pairing of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Michael van der Mark.  Lowes was reportedly under the weather on Wednesday.

GYTR GRT rider Remy Gardner was sixth quickest to take top Yamaha honours albeit by only three-thousandths of a second over Jonathan Rea as the six-time champ starts to really get to know the Pata YZF-R1M.

Despite being away from the heat of competition for almost five years, MotoGP race winner Andrea Iannone was next quickest on the GoEleven Ducati just ahead of Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo BMW), while Danilo Petrucci rounded out the top ten ahead of Alvaro Bautista.

Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha) was 12th on the charts ahead of Philipp Ottl (GMT94 Yamaha), Scott Redding (Bonovo BMW) and new Kawasaki Racing Team rider Axel Bassani.

Long-time Moto2 contestant Sam Lowes was 16th quickest on the Elf Marc VDS Ducati ahead of Honda’s Iker Lecuona. A new bike for 2024 not bearing fruit as yet for HRC.

The WorldSSP field was led by Marcel Schroetter (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) as the German posted a 1’42.015s to claim P1 ahead of Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) with just a tenth separating the two.

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Can Oncu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) was third as he took to the track on his ZX-6R featuring upgrades, while the Turk was also building up fitness following surgery on his arm over the winter. He was only 0.015s behind Manzi, while Adrian Huertas (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) completed the top four.

Jerez WorldSBK Test Times

WorldSBK 2024

The 2024 WorldSBK season itself will get underway proper with official tests for all on the 19th and 20th of February at the first venue of the year, Phillip Island. Before then, many teams will have two more European test sessions in January, at Jerez and Portimao, to make their final preparations before the bikes and equipment are flown out to Australia.

The Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit will raise the curtain once again for the new WorldSBK and WorldSSP season with the Australian Round on the weekend of February 25.

Tickets for the 2024 season opener are on sale now, check out your options at www.worldsbk.com.au

2024 WorldSBK Dates