Nicolò Bulega's Superbike debut is off to a great start, the first winter tests took place today in Jerez de la Frontera and the Aruba rider was immediately able to put the Panigale V4R presented on Monday in Madonna di Campiglio to the test. The first impact is decidedly positive, because the rookie he came close to breaking the track record with a 1'38”292 which is the best time of the day.
For one Aruba pilot who flies, another seems to be struggling: looking at the time rankings, Alvaro Bautista is in 11th position. This year's reigning World Champion has to fight against the rules before his rivals. The Spaniard is tenth among the SBK riders (11th if we consider Bradl's second time aboard the MotoGP), but the focus of the work is on balancing the weights to rebalance the ballasted bike according to the new regulatory changes. Bautista pays a second and a half from his new teammate.
Bulega climbed to the top of the timesheets with well over an hour remaining on Day 1 and no one was able to undermine him, not even Stefan Bradl. The German was on track to carry out tests with the Honda MotoGP and remained over a second behind the leader of the day. The rookie of the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team trimmed almost 1.2 seconds off the second fastest rider on Day 1: Alex Lowes.
The first day of testing gives us a taste of what the season will be like, with three different brands in the top three positions. The third time goes to Toprak Razgatlioglu, who showed speed from the first laps this morning and was in the lead for some time. The Turk was on his first outing with BMW together with his rivals and did not disfigure himself, on the contrary. Third at the end of the Day, he pays just over a second and precedes teammate Michael van der Mark, fourth.
The first of the Yamaha riders is, surprisingly, Remy Gardner. The Australian clocked the fifth fastest time with the GRT team's Yamaha (the only one on track today, Dominique Aegerter was stopped due to a virus) and precedes Jonathan Rea. The Northern Irishman closed the first day of testing in Jerez with the sixth fastest time and, riding his Yamaha, was almost 1.4 seconds off the pace.
One of the most anticipated riders of these winter tests is certainly Andrea Iannone, who took to the track today with the Goeleven team's Ducati. The driver from Vasto is on his second outing with the team, after his debut last November on the Andalusian track. 67 laps under the belt for Iannone, who is 1.3 seconds behind the leader of the day and precedes his teammate Danilo Petrucci. Ninth time for the Barni standard bearer, while Garrett Gerloff fits in between the two, riding the BMW of the Bonovo team.
Tenth among the Superbike riders is the aforementioned Bautista, with Andrea Locatelli in eleventh position ahead of the new GMT94 team standard bearer Philipp Oettl, 12th. Scott Redding is struggling with a difficult day and is only 13th. Complicated debut for Axel Bassani, 14th with the official Kawasaki. The Venetian driver precedes the other rookie, Sam Lowes. The Briton rode today with the Ducati of the Marc VDS team, which makes its debut in Superbike this year. An uphill start to 2024 also for Honda, which sees the two riders in great difficulty. Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge travel at the back and are 16th and 18th respectively. Among them is Tito Rabato, 17th with the Kawasaki of the Puccetti team.
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