Disappointing start for Bayliss in WorldSSP campaign
The opening round of 2023 at Phillip Island was quite an eventful one for the WorldSSP field: after a race one marked by with two flag situations, the final day of action saw a warm up session in which basically no rider could enter the track and a final race that only lasted two thirds of the overall distance.
The first encounter saw Oli Bayliss and Team D34G Racing taking a gamble on slick tyres for the final re-start, hoping the weather was going to hold out. Unfortunately, after four laps the rain made its return and made things a lot more complicated for the young Australian rider, who was 16th at the line.
In race two, Bayliss had a good start and fought hard aboard his Ducati Panigale V2 955 within the group battling for a top-five finish. Towards the end of the encounter, Oli was among the fastest riders on track and managed to make his way up to eighth place while battling to further improve his position.
The race was red flagged – due to the infamous Phillip Island Cape Barren Geese – and ultimately brought proceedings to an early finish as the riders had completed two thirds of the race distance.
Bayliss was tenth in the final classification, an unfortunate result as one lap prior he was forced to ride off-track due to a mechanical problem experienced by a rider ahead of him, who was cruising at slow speed inside the racing line – an incident that cost him a few positions.
Oli Bayliss and Team D34G Racing will return to action in less than a week’s time at the Mandalika circuit in Indonesia.
Oli Bayliss
“It’s a pity for how the weekend went results-wise, because I felt good on the bike and we had the potential to do much better. We worked well together and showed good speed, but unfortunately the two races were quite eventful and surely not favourable to us. We made a bold move in race one that unfortunately didn’t pay off: we went for slick tyres at the restart but after four laps the rain was back, and that was basically it. In race two I was able to make up several places and things were looking good, but unfortunately during the penultimate lap before the red flag I got caught behind another rider who was riding slowly due to a technical problem and had to go off the track to avoid him. When I got back on the track and re-joined, the race was stopped. Too bad, because we were very competitive towards the end. We have to keep working hard in the same direction and try to capitalise in Indonesia in less than a week.”
Davide Giugliano – D34G Racing Team Manager
“It was surely an interesting weekend that showed us we can be really fast, but unfortunately we weren’t able to capitalise this time out. In race one a wrong tyre choice prevented us from performing the way we could have; we did almost everything right but given the small number of laps left after the restart, we decided to take a gamble with slick tyres and it didn’t pay off. We were doing really well in the first four laps but then it started raining again and there was nothing we could do. Things went quite different today: we battled for a top-five finish with a bunch of other riders and I think we had a shot at fifth place, but unfortunately a mechanical issue suffered by another rider cost Oli a few positions as he had to go wide to avoid him. Overall it was a very good weekend; it’s always nice to race here in Australia and both Oli and the team did an incredible job so a big thank you goes to them as well as to both our fans and sponsors for their support. We won’t have to wait to long to try and make amends as we’ll be back on track in a few days’ time in Indonesia.”
World Supersport Championship Points
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | Nicolo Bulega | 50 |
| 2 | Stefano Manzi | 30 |
| 3 | Marcel Schroetter | 22 |
| 4 | Nicholas Spinelli | 20 |
| 5 | John Mcphee | 20 |
| 6 | Niki Tuuli | 20 |
| 7 | Jorge Navarro | 17 |
| 8 | Can Oncu | 16 |
| 9 | Glenn Van Straalen | 13 |
| 10 | Tarran Mackenzie | 11 |
| 11 | Valentin Debise | 11 |
| 12 | Anupab Sarmoon | 10 |
| 13 | Raffaele De Rosa | 9 |
| 14 | Oli Bayliss | 6 |
| 15 | Federico Caricasulo | 6 |
| 16 | Bahattin Sofuoglu | 5 |
| 17 | Harry Truelove | 5 |
| 18 | Adam Norrodin | 5 |
| 19 | Apiwath Wongthananon | 4 |
