Oli Bayliss completes successful two-day test at Misano
The baptism of fire for young Oli Bayliss on the world stage continued at Misano this week as the teenager tested at Misano alongside many of the World Championship regulars.
After breaking his ankle a little over a month ago, Oli went into this test with only seven laps under his belt on the Barni Racing Ducati Panigale V2. Thus this week was really a chance to further familiarise himself with what he has found is a very different bike to what he had been riding during testing in Australia.
Obviously the youngster was in some discomfort after breaking his ankle only a few weeks ago but pushed through to complete 143 laps of Misano, recording a best time of 1m39.3.
Oli worked through a program of setting up the machine across the two days to his liking despite suffering a crash at the end of the first day.
Three WorldSSP riders had gone under the lap record set by Jules Cluzel in 2015 at 1m37.482. Topping this test was Turk Can Öncü (Kawasaki) on a 1m37.209 ahead of Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta) on 1m37.348. Factory Ducati rider Nicolo Bulega was the fastest Panigale V2 rider on 1m37.356.
Oli’s next outing with the team will be at Barcelona on March 24-25 before the season gets underway with round one at Aragon on the weekend of April 8-9.
Oli Bayliss
“Overall, it was a good test. We worked a lot on the bike, but also on my riding style, and we were quite fast on the second day. It’s going to be a very difficult year for me because everything on the track will be new, but I have a good bike and a good team. So I’m trying to learn as quickly as possible. The goal of this test was to get to know the bike and the team on track because this was the first real test. In Portimao I got injured almost immediately, but this time we have completed the program. Because of that I’m satisfied.”
