Official tests complete – Day 2 wrap up

FINAL preparations for the Grand Ridge Brewery Australian Round at Phillip Island Circuit have drawn to a close for World Superbikes.

In the end, it was World Champion Alvaro Bautista who took the top honours over the course of the two-days. But it was incredibly close, with 16 riders covered by less than 1.5s as we head into the opening round of the season this weekend.

Alvaro Bautista [Aruba.It Racing - Ducati] set his fastest time in the third Free Practice session with a time of 1:30.272. The 2022 World Champion also completed the highest number of laps, seeing out a total of 169 laps over the course of the two days.

“I think from the first day with this bike I felt good, we didn’t have to make big changes on the bike, just small details,” Bautista said.

“(Tuesday) we were more focused only on tyres to get the maximum feeling. I did many laps during these two days. Yesterday I did 88 laps and today I did 80 or so, so the tyres were on the limit. For me, I prefer this because you can work more specifically for the race and less for the time attack mode.”

Andrea Locatelli [Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK] finished the two-day test in second by a marginal 0.072 behind Bautista with his fastest lap also in the third Free Practice session.
"I am really happy about this two day of testing, I think we are working well,” Locatelli said.

“We did a long run this afternoon, at the end the feeling was really good.

“I can't wait to start the weekend, in general I am really confident, and I feel we have really good grip. In the end, the feeling is really good in the bike, I have a really good bike.

“The feeling from day 1 was really good, and during the test we are working really well. In general, we get ready to start the season and we can see what happens. I think we arrive here for the first round ready."

Michael Ruben Rinaldi [Aruba.It Racing - Ducati] had a dream start to his 2023 season, and has been a strong contender throughout all pre-season tests.

A minor crash at Turn 10 'MG' in the final session didn’t detour the Italian rider and was able to re-join later in the session.

"We worked quite hard, you know everyone is doing a different plan,” Rinaldi said.

“Today I tried a race pace, and my pace is not so bad. I struggled a little bit during the last four or five laps because the tyre was finished. When I put the second compound in, I am not able to use a lot of grip to be faster so the tyre had more potential but actually I am not using that full potential. This year, we approach the test in a different way, and we tried to do a good job in every session."

Home hero Remy Gardner [GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK] finished out the two days in P9 with his fastest time put in the final session with a 1:31.073, only 0.801s off Bautista.

This time also placed Gardner P3 in the Independent standings behind Philipp Oettl and teammate Dominique Aegerter.

"It was a good day, a good way to finish the position,” Gardner said after completing 147 laps over the two days.

“We did our first race simulation, not full, but we completed a lot of laps without stopping. It was good, honestly, I was quite happy with my pace and to understanding how to control the rear tyre still to make sure I have a good pace at the end but I was quite happy.

“Yes, we didn't get to manage a really fast lap just because of some red flags over the last few days and some bad timings, but this was not the goal of the test. For me, I feel that every day we sort of start again and take more steps, and even from the morning to the afternoon we are still making steps forward.

“Managing the tyres, the format is different and something new for me, there are a lot of things to learn this weekend and we will take it step by step, weekend by weekend and our main thing is that we keep moving forward.

“Goals: it couldn't be a better place to start. I am really happy. Goals are a top 10 which I think is achievable from our testing here, maybe even better. Ultimately, our goal is to make sure we finish all the races, understand the tyres, how to manage the races, especially the spring races so for me, it's a learning weekend."