WSBK P.I. Test Image Gallery E – Images by TBGsport
WSBK P.I. Test Image Gallery E – Images by TBGsport
Alex Lowes tops Phillip Island WSBK Test – Problems plague wildcards Walters and Metcher
By Trevor Hedge
Alex Lowes continued where he left off yesterday to again set the pace today at Phillip Island as the official WSBK Phillip Island Test drew to a close.
Lowes set the marker at 1m30.859 this morning in cooler conditions and no headwind to slow his Suzuki GSX-R1000 down the straight where he managed 306.8km/h for the fifth fastest time down the chute. Strangely, Lowes set the fastest sector times in only one of the five sectors, but was outside the top three sector times across the remaining four sectors.
Alex Lowes: “We’ve had a good day and got through a detailed test programme, there’s not too much that we wanted to try that we haven’t really, so it’s been a difficult two days for the mechanics working really hard! The GSX-R is pretty good now, we’ll make a few changes over the weekend depending on the temperature and some minor things to try with electronics and the chassis but the biggest improvement still to come is from me and I know a few areas I can ride differently. I enjoyed it a lot today, did a race-run, put a lot of effort in and tried to keep within the limits. Thanks to the lads for all the hard work; hopefully we’ll keep progressing over the race weekend.”
Jonathan Rea is clearly gelling with the Kawasaki ZX-10R after many years aboard Honda machinery and was only a whisker away from top spot, a 1m30.880 to the Phillip Island based Irishman. Interestingly it was Rea who put in the most amount of laps across the two days with 139 laps of the 4.45km circuit amassing 619km on Kawasaki Racing Team machine.
Jonathan Rea: “I am happy to go into race weekend like this, although we still have some things to work on. It is just a bit of an unknown really so I am just working with my guys on the bike and trying to focus on going as fast as we can for all 20-laps. I was able to do a long run today and was able to keep most of the laps in the 1’31s. I do not know how competitive that is going to be but for now it is a start and we have that information to work with. We have done all the testing we can do, so I am happy that race weekend is coming. All the anticipation and excitement is there but we do not have to wait long now. I am looking forward to the lights going out on race day. Definitely, this is the best position we have ever been in at the start of a season.”
Jordi Torres again showed the extra weight and horsepower of a World Superbike, compared to the Moto2 machinery he has been on in recent years, is to his liking. The Spaniard third quickest and his Aprilia the fastest machine through the speed trap at 310.3km/h.
Jordi Torres: “At the end of the day I’m satisfied, even if there are still a lot of aspects I need to understand better, such as the braking sections or the “tight” ride this bike requires. The RSV4 rides well, the team works great and I don’t think that even the crash today will create any big problems in terms of confidence. It was a shame to have to stop the tests early because there were still a few important things to try in order to further adapt my riding style to the bike. We need to continue working like this in order to improve lap by lap.”
Wily Yorkshireman Tom Sykes ended the test fourth quickest from his 127 laps. A 1m31.075 to the 2013 World Superbike Champion.
Tom Sykes: “In general I am relatively happy and we set some good lap times at the end on used tyres. We have got a little bit of thinking to do now to decide our final direction for the race weekend and it is not a bad situation to be in, even though I had a very strange crash today. As I entered the last corner I felt OK but then I lost the rear quite easily. I tried to correct it and when I did it reacted and threw me over the high side. The boys worked really well and they were able to get out on the second bike, on a different set-up, so I was able to gather more information. Phillip Island is not ‘my’ circuit so to be so fast over race distance is promising. Credit to the boys and Kawasaki for giving me what I need. The Ninja ZX-10R is working well and if it does what I want it to then we can have a good race weekend.”
Leon Haslam put down a 1m31.102 on his Red Devils Aprilia to declare his intentions to fight for podiums and race wins in season 2015 after what has been a problematic few years for the likeable 31-year-old.
Leon Haslam: “Another positive day. This morning we tried a lot of new things over a long run and this afternoon we focused on fine tuning everything, testing more new changes without pushing to the limit to try and find our best lap time. I’m pleased with the job we did during these two days and I’m confident for the first race weekend. We still have the Friday and Saturday practice sessions which we will use to further improve some aspects of the setup and the electronics, but I’m confident that we will be very competitive in the races.”
Chaz Davies was the quickest Ducati. A 1m31.296 to the Welshman on the Ducati Panigale R. Davies ranked sixth overall on completion of the two-day test ahead of David Salom (Kawasaki) and fellow Ducati pilot Nicolas Terol.
Nico Terol: “I’m pleased with how these two days of tests at Phillip Island have gone. We’ve done a good job, our pace is good, having recorded lap times that were more or less in line with my expectations. I really like the bike and I see that I still have room for improvement, and this is important and something I will concentrate on during the sessions on Friday and Saturday, doing my best to improve on my times. I have good feeling, the team has worked very well and I want to do a good job, starting from Friday, in order to prepare as well as possible for the races.”
The fastest Honda time was a 1m31.854 by Michael Van Der Mark while Davide Giugliano rounded out the top ten courtest of his Monday morning time. Giugliano is currently awaiting the opinion of specialists at a Melbourne hospital after suffering tiny fractures in his L1 and L2 vertebrae and is looking like to miss this weekend’s season opener.
Michael van der Mark – “I’m really excited now because I love racing more than testing! I think everyone’s the same but we needed this test and I have a good feeling now. Most of the time for me has been making laps, and lap-by-lap I’ve improved. It’s quite difficult – everyone is really fast and I’m still learning, but that’s the way we have to do it. We’ve had two quite good days and tried a lot of things and we’ve seen which things work and which things don’t, so I’m looking forward to starting the race weekend.”
Niccolo Canepa was a very encouraging 11th quickest on the Hero EBR, more than two-seconds quicker than his teammate Larry Pegram.
Defending Superbike World Champion Sylvain Guintoli was 12th quickest on the Pata Honda Fireblade but is still suffering back problems sustained in a testing crash earlier in the year.
Sylvain Guintoli – 1m32.220s – “We’re working hard and I’m actually feeling quite upbeat tonight, despite being quite a way down on time. It was important to get back on the bike here because obviously at the last test I didn’t get any track time, so almost no winter testing. I missed out on some good conditions in Jerez and I had to rebuild my confidence as well after that massive crash there. I had a little off today as well, which, in a way was quite good and it kind of woke me up at the end of the second day!”
Randy De Puniet only did 14 laps today after crashing heavily at turn 11 yesterday. The Frenchman has severe bruising and swelling across his lower back but is hopeful of being in better shape when proceedings get underway on Friday.
Randy de Puniet: “Nothing much to tell, the good news is nothing is broken but my back is very swollen. I had an examination today and everything looks ok. I tried to complete some laps this afternoon to get an idea of the feeling for Friday but it was so painful I only did 15 laps and decided to stop for medical treatment after one hour. Tomorrow and Thursday I will seek further treatment to try to reduce the pain but I’m confident that it will just get better day by day.”
Both Australian wildcards suffered their share of mechanical woes this morning with Matthew Walters blowing a gearbox apart in the Pedercini ZX-10R while Jed Metcher’s Race Center Team were frustrated all morning with electrical gremlins plaguing their machine also into the afternoon session. Better those problems rear their head today rather than on the race weekend though!
Matthew Walters ended the test 19th quickest with a 1m33.354 narrowly putting him ahead of Metcher’s 1m35.570. Walters put in 90 laps across the two days to Metcher’s 80 laps and the Pedercini machine recorded 295.1 through the speed trap today compared to the 293.5 of Metcher’s Race Center Kawasaki.
WSBK Phillip Island Test 2015
Combined Times All Sessions Monday and Tuesday
- Alex Lowes – Suzuki -1m30.859
- Jonathan Rea – Kawasaki – 1m30.880
- Jordi Torres – Aprilia – 1m30.971
- Tom Sykes – Kawasaki – 1m31.075
- Leon Haslam – Aprilia – 1m31.102
- Chaz Davies – Ducati – 1m31.296
- David Salom – Kawasaki – 1m31.510
- Nicolas Terol – Ducati – 1m31.593
- Michael Van Der Mark – Honda – 1m31.854
- Davide Giugliano – Ducati – 1m31.948
- Niccolo Canpea – EBR – 1m32.002
- Sylvain Guintoli – Honda – 1m32.220
- Leon Camier – MV Agusta – 1m32.238
- Leandro Mercado – Ducati – 1m32.239
- Sylvain Barrier – BMW – 1m32.268
- Randy De Puniet – Suzuki – 1m32.402
- Matteo Baiocco – Ducati – 1m42.430
- Roman Ramos – Kawasaki – 1m33.349
- Matthew Walters – Kawasaki – 1m33.354
- Jed Metcher – Kawasaki – 1m33.570
- Santiago Barragan – Kawasaki – 1m34.104
- Larry Pegram – EBR – 1m34.274
- Christophe PPonsson – Kawasaki – 1m34.966
- Gabor Rizmayer – BMW – 1m35.351
- Imre Toth – BMW – 1m36.112
WSBK Phillip Island Test 2015
Top Speeds Tuesday
- Torres 310.3
- Davies 309.5
- Baiocco 309.5
- Terol 307.7
- Lowes 306.8
- Van Der Mark 306.8
- Guintoli 305.9
- Rea 305.1
- Haslam 303.4
- Salom 300.8
Cluzel pips team mate and betters existing race lap record in final day of WSS testing at Phillip Island
By Michael Hill and Trevor Hedge
As day two of official World Supersport testing drew to a close at an overcast yet dry Phillip Island it was 2014 round one winner Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) and his team mate Lorenzo Zanetti who will head into Friday’s opening Free Practice sessions as the ones to beat after both riders dipped below the existing race lap record for the class, Cluzel producing a stunning 1.32.967s lap – the first ever sub 1.33s lap.
The cooler and less windy conditions ensured that all of the World Supersport contenders could maximise the track time available to them and despite a few spots of rain during the morning test almost every rider posted a faster time than on the opening day.
Behind the flying MV Agusta duo it was former multiple champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) who gave chase in a solid 3rd position overall, a fraction of a second ahead of the current STK600 champion Marco Faccani (San Carlo Puccetti Racing) who impressed in 4th on his Phillip Island debut.
French sensation Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Intermoto PonyExpres) and American team mate PJ Jacobsen rounded the top 6 of two days of testing that has many people now predicting a close and hard fought 2015 World Supersport campaign.
Ratthapark Wilairot adjusted to his CORE Motorsport Thailand Honda machine moving up to 7th overall while WSS returnee Alex Baldolini elevated himself into 10th aboard his privately entered Race Department ATK#25 MV Agusta.
Aiden Wagner had starred on the opening day of testing with the sixth quickest time on his locally prepared Yamaha but he dropped a valve in one of their new engines this morning and missed the afternoon session and slipped down the order to 16th quickest overall. Wagner remains confident for the weekend where they have different spec’ engines to utilise over the race weekend.
Glenn Scott continued his familiarisation with the AARK Racing Honda and is happy to be moving in the right direction with set-up.
Alex Phillis finished the test 20th overall and is getting himself back up to speed on a 600cc machine after spending the last two years on 1,000cc bikes.
Sam Lambert blew a tyre in the afternoon session and finished the two days in 23rd spot on the timesheets aboard the only Triumph entered.
WSS Phillip Island Test 2015
Combined Times All Sessions Monday and Tuesday
- Jules Cluzel – MV Agusta – 1m32.967
- Lorenzo Zanetti – MV Agusta – 1m33.229
- Kenan Sofuoglu – Kawasaki – 1m33.555
- Marco Faccani – Kawasaki – 1m33.930
- Lucas Mahias – Kawasaki – 1m34.248
- Patrick Jacobsen – Kawasaki – 1m34.269
- Ratthapark Wilairot – Honda – 1m34.394
- Riccardo Russo – Honda – 1m34.464
- Kyle Smith – Honda – 1m34.482
- Alex Baldolini – MV Agusta – 1m34.769
- Roberto Rolfo – Honda – 1m34.772
- Dominic Schmitter – Kawasaki – 1m34.922
- Kevin Wahr – Honda – 1m34.955
- Fabio Menghi – Yamaha – 1m35.029
- Gino Rea – Honda – 1m35.041
- Aiden Wagner – Yamaha – 1m35.055
- Martin Cardenas – Honda – 1m35.331
- Christian Gamarino – Kawasaki – 1m35.783
- Glenn Scott – Honda – 1m36.328
- Alex Phillis – Honda – 1m36.733
- Kieran Clarke – Honda – 1m37.180
- Nacho Calero – Kawasaki – 1m37.591
- Sam Lambert – Triumph – 1m38.482
- Marcos Ramirez – Kawasaki – 1m38.744
