These preseason tests that have been carried out in Jerez have had notable casualties such as those of Bautista, Petrucci, Oliveira, Sam Lowes or Andrea Iannone, who, despite not having a team, is registered for next season. But also a clear dominator who probably would have been the same even though all of them had been there: Nicolo Bulega.
The Italian, as happened on the first day, set the best time with an overwhelming advantage over the second placed team. Of course, on this occasion Iker Lecuona was the second fastest, and he also managed to stop the clock less than a second behind his new teammate. And that is already something important.
Specifically, 857 thousandths separate the two Ducati riders in the classification, but it is an important step forward because Bulega lowered Monday’s time by half a second, but Lecuona lowered his own time by 1.1 seconds, which means that lap after lap he is adapting to a Panigale V4 R that has little to do with the CBR1000RR that he has ridden in recent seasons.
Bimota debuts in the preseason, although with times far from Ducati
In addition to the two Ducati riders, the two Bimota riders, who did not ride on the first day, could also be seen on the track again. Alex Lowes placed the KB998 Rimini in third position, while Basani set the fifth fastest time of the day. Between them was Michael van der Mark fulfilling his role as a test rider, while Petrucci continues to recover and Oliveira is in Malaysia to compete in MotoGP.
Xavi Vierge, second on the first day, finished sixth in the combined precisely thanks to Monday’s time, doing so as the best Yamaha ahead of his brand mates, with Manzi, Sofuoglu and Locatelli seventh, eighth and ninth respectively. Honda, which is in a situation similar to that of BMW because both Dixon and Chantra are in Malaysia, continued rolling with Corentin Perolari who closed the top 10.
Top10 combined classification Jerez test
- Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1’37.587s
- Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.857s
- Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) +1.169s
- Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Test Team) +1,411s
- Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) +1,463s
- Xavi Vierge (Pata Maxus Yamaha) +1,550s
- Stefano Manzi (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +1.762s
- Bahattin Sofuoglu (Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team) +1.846s
- Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) +1,892s
- Corentin Perolari (Honda HRC Test Team) +2.020s
