Recapping Tuesday morning WorldSBK Testing action from P.I.

Phillip Island WorldSBK Test

Nicolo Bulega became the first man on a World Superbike to ever dip into the 1m28s this morning at Phillip Island.  The 24-year-old Italian recorded a 1m28.962 just over halfway through the four-hour FP1 session. His progress was temporarily stunted by a small crash late in proceedings, but the 2023 World Supersport Champ then went out in the remaining minutes of the session on an SC0 rear and improved further to 1m28.890. Bulega then temporarily slowed to 1m29.877 before getting his head down again to back it up with a 1m28.951, immediately followed by a 1m29.070 and 1m29.400, then a 1m29.695, a 1m29.699, before finishing with a 1m29.632 and returning to the pits.

Bulega’s SC0 rear tyre looked not too bad at all after a fast run of eight laps. A best of 1m28.890 on the first of those eight laps, gradually slowing to 1m29.623 on the eighth lap. This clearly showcases the speed drop over the course of eight laps. Bulega put in 51 laps this morning, the only riders to circulate more times were Dominique Aegerter and Tito Rabat.

The scheduled race distance here for Race One and Race Two is 22 laps, the Superpole race is slated for ten laps. It is widely rumoured that we will have mandatory pit-stops in the longer races, or dramatically shortened race distances.

The freshly surfaced 4.45 kilometres of black top might be testing the durability of the tyres, but it is certainly helping riders find more speed than ever before around what is one of the most wonderful ribbons of tarmac in the world.  At this stage of the game, the Ducati of Bulega appears to be looking after its tyres better than most…

For reference, the official fastest lap recorded at Phillip Island during a race weekend was set by Tom Sykes at 1m29.230 on a BMW in 2020 for pole position.  The race lap record is actually a year older, set by Jonathan Rea on a Kawasaki at 1m30.075 in 2019. The highest trap speed officially recorded by a World Superbike at Phillip Island is 330.3 km/h, set by Chaz Davies in 2020 on a Ducati.

The fastest ever MotoGP lap recorded here at Phillip Island is a 1m27.246 set by Jorge Martin to take pole position for Pramac Ducati here last year.  The MotoGP race lap record is more than a decade old, set by Marc Marquez on a Honda in 2013 at 1m28.108.  The highest top speed by a MotoGP bike recorded at Phillip Island is 356.4 km/h by Enea Bastianini in 2022.

Andrea Iannone was knocking on the door of a 28, a 1m29.001, showing that despite many years away from competition, he is hot to trot in 2024 with Team GoEleven Ducati. That was not the only low 29 put in by Iannone this morning. He was on course for a potential 28 in the dying minutes of the session before running off. He was then black-flagged for not returning to the pits after that small turn-four crash. The bad boy in the bad books already! He has the pace to be in the 28s here this afternoon.

Toprak Razgatlioglu did a 1m29 on his ninth lap this morning and improved to 1m29.467 before midday. Shortly after midday he lowered his marker further to 1m29.398.  Toprak then improved to 1m29.110 in the closing stages of the session to move up to P3.  The Turk was equal quickest through the speed trap with Danilo Petrucci and Tito Rabat, all three clocking 322 km/h.

Andrea Locatelli was third quickest for much of the session, and improved to a best of 1m29.190 late in the session, only for Toprak to then demote him to fourth.

Fifth and sixth places were held down for most of the session by the Lowes brothers, Sam winning out in this bout of sibling rivalry.  However, the pair were split by both Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding late in the session, demoting Alex Lowes to eighth. Later in the session Alvaro Bautista also got the better of Sam Lowes, the defending champ moving up to fifth quickest in the dying minutes of the session.

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Michael van der Mark moved up to ninth late in the session. Michael Rinaldi rounded out the top ten ahead of Danilo Petrucci.

Jonathan Rea was 12th quickest on 1m29.988 and went down on the Pata Yamaha at turn 11 late in the session while trying to improve.

Remy Gardner was 15th on the time-sheets and will be searching for more speed this afternoon. The Australian was seen looking at his well-shredded rear tyre after coming in late in the session.

An early oil-down from Garrett Gerloff on the Bonovo Action BMW caused a brief halt in proceedings this morning. And another short break ensued a little later when Philipp Öettl suffered a technical problem on track with the GMT94 Yamaha.

Just before midday, Iker Lecuona went down at turn 11 and was taken to the medical centre. A red flag delay of around ten-minutes followed before pit-lane opened again for the final hour of the four-hour morning session.  A crash at turn 11 for Jonathan Rea with just under 30-minutes remaining caused another late interruption. The bike landed on Rea’s leg, leaving him a little sore but no major drama.

Riders are on track again this afternoon from 1340 through to 1740.

Phillip Island WorldSBK Test Times
Tuesday FP1

WorldSBK 2024

The Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit raises 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

Phillip Island ASBK/WSBK Schedule

2024 WorldSBK Dates