Alvaro Bautista certainly did not spare himself on the Ducati Panigale V4. The prodigal son was able to begin his second chapter in Rossi on his return from Mandalika and tried to make the most of the two days of Jerez de la Frontera.
After two disappointing seasons on the Honda, the Spaniard found the bike with which he had presented himself in a dominant way on the SBK scene before coming to the break with Borgo Panigale. And today he worked hard, putting together over 80 laps, starting to work on the setting as well as on the driving position.
At the end of the day, his best reference was a 1’39 “119, thus lapping within a tenth of the SBK race record on the Andalusian track. Among other things, he was about half a second slower than Michele Pirro, Ducati test rider. who was on track with the Desmosedici GP, but was also faster than that of Suzuki MotoGP, the Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli, who followed him by just 50 thousandths. The feeling with the Borgo Panigale V4 therefore does not seem to have vanished in the two years away.
On the track, Ducati’s new weapon for the Supersport, the V2 with which, was also to be followed with interest Nicolò Bulega he lapped in 1’42 “952, completing about sixty laps. A reference about four tenths of a second from the race record in the category. Not bad, therefore, if you consider that for the Italian rider it was his debut riding a derivative standard.
“I’m happy with how these two days of testing went. Yesterday was a bit of a shock for me because, in addition to the fact that I had never ridden a Ducati, so many things have changed for me: the tires, the chassis, the engine, the way to work, “said Bulega at the end of the second day.
“But today we got off to a very good start, beyond the times, which weren’t bad but we didn’t look at them too much. my feeling with the bike is good, so I’m happy with how these two days went “, he concluded.
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