The first day of testing for the Superbike World Championship came to an end in Barcelona with Nicolò Bulega being the fastest at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, providing another opportunity for many riders to work on their adaptation to a new reality.
Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was 0.464s faster than one of the standouts from the first round of the championship in Phillip Island, Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team), who finished with the second fastest time, while the current champion, Álvaro Bautista and Bulega’s teammate, was third 0.725s behind the newcomer in the class.
Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) also showed great form, as he left the Moto2 World Championship to start his adventure in WSBK, finishing the day 0.752s behind Bulega. Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha), who had a very challenging round in Australia, closed the top five after being 1.351s slower than the #11.
Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team, +1.367s), Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team, +1.380s), Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team Motocorsa Racing, +1.388s), Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW, +1.433s), and the main star of the first round, Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK, +1.498s) completed the top ten list.
Check out the full results of the day:
