Category: World Superbikes

Four weeks after the sensational opening round at Philip Island, the World Superbike paddock sets up shop this weekend at the Chang International Circuit in Thailand.

Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Ducati) scored a brilliant double last time out in Australia, and will be looking to increase his lead at the top of the championship. History has not been kind to the factory-supported Ducati team. In the previous three years that World Superbikes has been visiting the Buriram track, no rider aboard a Panigale machine has stood on the top step of the podium.  The best result by any Ducati rider here is second place, achieved by Melandri’s teammate, Chaz Davies, in 2017. Davies will be looking to bounce back after a disappointing round in Australia, and reassert himself as the team’s number one. Davies has a good record here. Despite never having yet claimed victory, the 31-year old has finished on the podium twice here (second place in 2015 and third place in 2016). 

Aruba.it Ducati will also be facing competition from their privateer counterparts. Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Ducati) was the standout independent rider from the opening round last month. The Spaniard threw the form book out of the proverbial window during the second race, to claim a remarkable third place finish just behind Melandri and Jonathan Rea (KRT) . At the Thai circuit we could see Fores feature prominently again, as the track suits the strengths of the Panigale 1199 as well as the ‘no holds barred’ style of its rider.

By their own admission the all-conquering Kawasaki Racing Team were disappointed to leave Phillip Island with two second place finishes. Despite starting the opening race from pole position, tyre trouble denied Tom Sykes. Jonathan Rea was beaten to the line in the thrilling drag race in race two. KRT have every reason to expect success this weekend. Since the World Superbike Championship first visited Thailand in 2015, the green and black machines have held an exclusive monopoly at the track with victory in all six previous races. Rea standing on the top step of the podium a staggering five times, with Sykes securing his victory in 2016.

Red Bull Honda looking to back up their strong performance from Australia. Leon Camier returned from the opening round with a solid haul of points for the team – underlining how far the team has improved since last season. The British rider defied all expectation, taking a brace of sixth place finishes. Most notably, in race 2 the Honda rider finished under 3 seconds shy of the winner. It was a challenging weekend for his teammate, Jake Gagne. The American had never before ridden the Phillip Island circuit, and the objectives were to simply learn the course, not crash and fight for points if possible. The rookie ticked all three boxes. It will be the case of “same again” this weekend as, having arrived from MotoAmerica, the 26-year old has never raced at the Buriram venue before.   

Gagne is one of five riders who will be racing a superbike around the Buriram circuit for the first time this weekend. The other four being: Loris Baz (Gulf Althea BMW), Yonny Hernandez (Team Pedercini Racing), PJ Jacobsen (TripleM Honda World Superbike Team) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Puccetti Kawasaki). 

The Pata Yamaha team will be looking to improve upon their solid, if unspectacular, showing in round one. In the build up to the season much had been made of the growing rivalry between the two Yamaha riders, Alex Lowes (Great Britain) and Michael Van der Mark (Netherlands). If you include qualifying performances into consideration, Lowes arrives in Thailand with a 3-0 lead over his team-mate, having out scored his teammate in both races last time out.  The Buriram circuit has not been a happy hunting ground for the team, with a best result of fourth last year for Lowes, being the highlight. Straight line speed is critical at this track, something the team spent a considerable amount of time working on during the winter tests.

Qualifying: Saturday, March 24th, 1330 Local Time (0630 GMT)

Race 1: Saturday, March 24th, 1600 Local Time (0900 GMT)

Race 2: Sunday, March 25th, 1600 Local Time (1000 BST)

 

After a strange race one in Phillip Island, where tyre problems were aplenty, the second race of the first round of the 2018 Superbike World Championship was to have a mandatory pit stop, like the Grand Prix in 2013. Each rider was required to stop on either lap ten, eleven, or twelve. Despite this, with Jonathan Rea starting off the front row in second place, with all his main rivals, race one winner Marco Melandri, teammate Tom Sykes and the other factory Ducati of Chaz Davies, back on row three, it seemed almost inevitable that Rea would be victorious. Especially considering he Northern Irishman has never failed to win a race in a Phillip Island meeting since he joined Kawasaki back in 2015.

Sure enough, Rea made the holeshot. He was followed into turn by Xavi Fores, and Eugene Laverty moved into third. But when they arrived at Honda hairpin, Laverty made a huge lunge up the inside of both Fores and Rea to take the early lead, and demonstrate the front confidence he now has in the Aprilia.
Meanwhile, Leon Camier had been passed by Chaz Davies at Stoner’s for fourth. Other than Davies, who started seventh after his third place yesterday, the third row made pretty average starts, with Sykes and race one winner Melandri languishing early on. By the end of lap one, Laverty had an advantage of almost one second, and looked to be checking out, but the battle behind was fierce.

Entering lap two and Camier made a monumental dive up the inside of Fores and Rea for second place, and managed to keep the position despite running wide on the exit. At the same time, Alex Lowes dropped from sixth to tenth, behind Toprak Razgatlioglu, whilst teammate Michel van der Mark was sixth.

On lap three, Laverty high sided on the exit of Siberia, but remounted, albeit at the back of the pack. That left Chaz Davies in the lead, whilst the position swapping remained relentless behind. And by this time, Melandri had started to move through the pack, and by lap four he had made it up to fourth, just behind Rea, until Davies ran wide at Honda, sucking in Fores as he went, and leaving Rea to take the lead.

The position changes of the early laps was indicative of the rest of the race, and incredibly, Laverty was the only casualty from the top ten in the first part of the race.

But by lap five, Davies had gotten himself a few laps at the front and started to stretch the pack a little, and there became a distinct group of nine at the head of the race, with Chaz at its helm, and Alex Lowes at the tail end.

Come lap six and attention began to turn to the mandatory stops which would commence in just five laps time. There was a crash for Jake Gagne on the Red Bull Honda at Honda Hairpin, but he remounted in sixteenth.

As the first riders entered the pits at the end of lap ten, the order of the leading group of, now, eight was: Fores, Davies, Rea, van der Mark, Melandri, Camier, Sykes and Lowes. Those from the front group who stopped on lap ten were: Fores, Rea and van der Mark. These riders would have been hoping that, by stopping early, they could have gotten some clean air, and put in one or two fast laps to hopefully come out in front, and perhaps with a reasonable gap, to the rest of the pack. Added to that was the idea that the undercut (F1 term, meaning the pilot who comes in first has fresh tyres and can make time on those who stay out on worn rubber) would be quite strong due to the high tyre wear at Phillip Island, especially this weekend.

The other five of the top eight pitted on lap eleven. It would have been useful to see the order and the melee as the lap-eleven-stoppers re-joined in the midst of those who had stopped the lap earlier (and this was almost a perfect merge, as the undercut had almost no effect; it did not seem to matter at all whether you stopped on lap ten or lap eleven), but at this moment the director had an absolute nightmare, and decided to show thirty seconds of PJ Jacobsen on the Triple M Honda circulating on his own, as he waited until lap twelve to stop and was thus leading for a lap. When the directory finally got his act together, about a lap too late, the top eight went: Davies from Melandri, Fores, Lowes, Sykes, Rea, van der Mark and Camier. Crucially, though, all the leaders were together after the stops.

Unfortunately, Chaz Davies joined Eugene Laverty in the “crashed out of the lead” club, as he lost the front at MG on lap twelve, leading Fores as the leader of the group of seven at the head of the field.

Fortunately, though, the quality of the racing action did not diminish at all after the pit stops, and the passing continued to be relentless. However, there had become a gap between Sykes in third and van der Mark in fourth. However, after Melandri passed the Dutchman, he dragged both the Yamahas and the Red Bull Honda of Camier back up to the front three, and set himself about Sykes.

With six to go, Melandri used his impressive acceleration, which he carried over from his race one win on Saturday, to pass Sykes at the end of the straight. “The Grinner” nearly ran into the back of the Italian, and ran on a fair way. At the same time, and for a while still to come, Xavi Fores was continuing to look consistent at the front, making no mistakes, and being quick with it. In comparison, van der Mark was beginning to run into tyre woes, and dropped to seventh, as Camier moved to fifth ahead of the other Yamaha of Lowes.
Whilst this was going on, Sykes was coming back to the leading three, and by the beginning of lap twenty, he was back with them, just as the reigning World Champion hit the front. Fores then ran wide at Honda hairpin, allowing Melandri through, and seconds later Lowes eased aside Camier to take fifth.
On lap twenty, it became clear that Melandri was extremely strong in the final sector, as he negated the gap Rea had built up over the previous lap in just the final two corners and the pit straight.

The penultimate lap arrived, and when it concluded, Melandri slipstreamed past Rea to lead over the line, but the Northern Irishman fought back brutally, and with immediacy, at turn one with an outrageous inside dive. The factory Ducati of Melandri then seemed somewhat under pressure from the satellite Panigale of Fores. After the order of the top three remained the same through Honda Hairpin, it seemed that Melandri would be able to slipstream Rea to the line as he did the lap before, but only if Fores failed to pass him at MG Corner. Fortunately for the Italian, Fores was unable to make a pass at MG, and so the number 33 was free to tow the 2017 World Champion to the line to take his first double since Jerez 2014, and he did so by the gaping chasm of 0.021 seconds.

The victory was Melandri’s first at Phillip Island since 2006 in MotoGP – the flag-to-flag affair that left the 2002 250cc Grand Prix World Champion spinning and waving on the exit of the final corner to take victory. On this occasion, Melandri’s Panigale was speed-wobbling all the way down the Gardner Straight, as it had done on many other occasions not only in race two, but in race one as well. This instability was something Melandri had to battle almost every lap down into turn one, and it was for this reason that he understood his only chance to win was to slipstream Rea out of the final corner.

In 2017, Melandri claimed one win in the entire season. So far in 2018, he has already claimed two. Things might have been different if Davies or Laverty had not crashed, or if Rea was not ill, or if Marco hadn’t pushed Sykes wide when he passed him at turn one. However, all of those things did happen, and Melandri rode incredibly, and showed some stellar race craft for the second time this weekend, and ultimately his win was absolutely well deserved, as is his championship lead.

Speaking of championship leads, this is the first time Jonathan Rea has not held the lead of the Superbike World Championship since Qatar 2014, when Sylvain Guintoli clinched the title from Tom Sykes. Still, despite a tyre issue in race one that had him considering retirement (from the race), and a bout of flu, the reigning World Champion heads to Buriram for round two lying third in the championship, only nineteen points off the top spot, and in the knowledge that Kawasaki has not been defeated so far in Thailand.

As for Xavi Fores, he put in a superb performance for third, and might have won had things worked out a little differently. But, as it is, he took third place, and in fabulous style, barely making a mistake in the entire race, and having enough confidence to fight with the likes of the factory Kawasakis and Ducatis. In one way, Fores is like World Superbike’s Johann Zarco – he’s the independent team rider who can beat the factory guys. And, of course, it goes without saying that Fores is leading the Independent championship at the moment.

Tom Sykes took home fourth place. As with Fores, had things gone differently, the Englishman could have found himself one or two places higher. But with things as they are, he goes to Thailand in a few weeks lying second in the championship and looking as comfortable on the Kawasaki as he has done since 2014. In this form, Sykes can challenge for the title, no doubt about it.

The top five was rounded out by the first of the Yamahas: Alex Lowes, who won out in the scrap with his teammate and Leon Camier. Whilst being only a couple of seconds off the win is not so bad, it is possible to say that the Yamaha guys will be leaving Australia slightly disappointed, as it was thought the new technical regulations would favour them the most. As it is, Lowes is worse-off points-wise now than he was at this stage last year. With that being said, Phillip Island can be a misleading track – the high speed nature means that big groups almost always form, and it is possible that some teams and riders can be flattered by this. Of course, that is combined, in this case, with the pit stop, which essentially meant that tyre conservation was irrelevant, and the race was basically two sprint races, and last year one of the strengths of the Yamaha was the way it saved the rear tyre. With this in mind, perhaps we will see both Lowes and van der Mark fighting for the podium at the end of the races in Thailand.

It was a positive race for Leon Camier, as the Brit split the R1s to take sixth. Hopefully for the Red Bull Honda squad, this positive start can be a sign of things to come in 2018, as they look to bounce back from a 2017 which was dreadful at best when it came to on-track performance.

Eugene Laverty looked strong early on. He took the lead at turn four on the opening lap and from there he stretched his lead to 1.5 seconds over the next two laps. He looked comfortable, and that is what made his crash something of a shock. In race one the Irishman finished ninth thanks to front tyre wear issues, and his crash was early enough in race two to mean that we never got a chance to see if he had rectified those problems. What can be said though, is that the 2013 runner-up looked supremely confident on the RSV4 in those early laps, and that has to be a positive sign for the coming races. On the whole, though, Phillip Island has been something of a disappointing round for the Milwaukee Aprilia team, who also lost Lorenzo Savadori from the weekend after a Superpole crash which cost him the chance to race. As such, they only amassed eight points from the weekend. On the positive side, it is difficult to see how it can be much worse in Buriram.

All in all, the opening round of the 2018 Superbike World Championship was stellar, in terms of the racing action, and is hopefully an indicator for the rest if the season. We have understood that Marco Melandri might be able to fight for the championship, and the same can probably be said for Tom Sykes. For the rules, we must wait for some more rounds to pass before we make a judgement, but the first signs are positive.

In one month, the paddock arrives in Thailand, and thee we will get a better understanding of what might await in the 2018 Superbike World Championship.

Marco Melandri turned back the clock on Saturday, leaving the field in his wake at the Phillip Island Circuit.

A colder than expected track temperature, along with regular gusts of wind rolling in from the Bass strait, ensured that maintaining a smooth rhythm was nigh on impossible for the riders.

The Italian produced a brilliant tactical performance. Content enough to sit behind his rivals in the first half of the race and managing his machine to contend with the testing track conditions, enabling him to produce an irresistible charge in the closing laps whilst the others floundered. The icing on the cake being a perfectly executed block pass through the high speed Doohan corner and under heavy braking into the Southern loop, on Tom Sykes during the penultimate lap.

A new season, with a raft of new regulations, filled riders and spectators with optimism that the new season would be more competitive than the last. The bright green KRT machine of Sykes on pole threatened to suggest otherwise.

The Yorkshireman made a brilliant start as the lights went out, hooking up the start and pulling a relatively healthy lead out to the rest of the field in the opening laps. A solid practice day on Friday had been backed up by a stunning performance in Qualifying on Saturday morning. The warning signs for the rest could not have been more ominous.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) led the chase behind, with the triple world champion in no mood to go down without a fight. Following in hot pursuit as always, were the two factory Aruba.it Ducati bikes of Melandri and Chaz Davies. The trio would dice with each other throughout the 22 laps, gradually closing the lead to Sykes.

The cold temperatures additionally brought another problem for the teams – tyre wear.

It was a case of what might have been for Rea as late in the race he was forced to drop back and out of contention of the podium battle. He would eventually finish behind Spanish rider Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Ducati) in fifth place. After the race, a quick look at his rear tyre explained the problem. The slick rubber had been worn almost through to the carcass. However, Rea’s problems were not as evident with the remaining podium contenders as the factory Ducati rider (Davies) and the privateer machine of Fores engaged in a gripping battle, with both riders exchanging places at almost every corner. Davies emerging with the bragging rights after shutting out his rival at the bottom of the infamous Lukey Heights corner.

Behind the top five there was action to be found in abundance. The two Pata-Yamaha team-mates, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark, were locked in thrilling race long duel. Although in the closing stages, the latter rider was forced to drop behind and conserve what little rubber was still attached to his rear tyre, eventually finishing in P9. In contrast, Lowes managed to hold on to sixth place suffering noticeably less tyre wear than most of the competition. His smooth riding style, which has helped him to back-to-back Suzuka 8 hour wins a clear factor.

The the Red Bull Honda team, the opening race on Saturday confirmed that the team has made an incredible amount of progress since 2017. Leon Camier finished an eventful race in seventh place – and 21 seconds behind the winning time of Melandri. The veteran British rider found himself locked in a brilliant scrap early in the race with Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia), Loris Baz (Gulf Althea BMW), Leandro Mercado (Oretac Racing Kawasaki) and Jordi Torres (MV Agusta). The latter unfortunately crashing out with only 3 laps left in the race, but both he and his team can take considerable encouragement with the pace and reliability shown across the weekend.

It was a solid day for Laverty, however. The Irishman had been the bolt from the blue earlier in the day, by qualifying on the front row of the grid in second place. Whilst it was inevitable that the Aprilia dropped back during the race, the former MotoGP rider did not surrender any places without a fight. Whilst the TV cameras may have been more interested in the battle for the podium, the dicing between Laverty, Lowes and Camier were not for the faint hearted. The raw pace is there to make Laverty competitive this season, of that there is no doubt.

But the day undoubtedly belonged to Marco Melandri. The Ducati man had looked competitive since the first practice session on Friday morning. A front row start and stunning charge ensured he could not be denied the first blood of the 2018 season. Additionally, this win puts the Italian on 21 victories in the World Superbike class – equal to that of his illustrious compatirot: multiple Grand Prix race winner and double Superbike World Champion, Max Biaggi.

WSBK Race Result – Top 10:

1: Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Ducati) 33’40.354

2: Tom Sykes (KRT) + 1.180

3: Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Ducati) + 9.265

4: Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Ducati)

5: Jonathan Rea (KRT)

6: Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha)

7: Leon Camier (Red Bull Honda)

8: Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia)

9: Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha)

10: Leandro Mercado (Oretac Racing Kawasaki)

Winter pre-season testing concluded this week for the World Superbike competitors at the Autodromo do Algarve, Portugal. The two-day event presented the teams with one final chance to make sure their setups are optimised, ahead of the opening round next month in Australia.

One team who managed to fully capitalise their on-track running was the Pata Yamaha outfit. Whilst both riders had managed a solid return last week at Jerez, this week the team ramped up preparations for the season, with both riders completing multiple race and qualifying simulations. As one of the teams expected to close the gap to the Kawasaki Racing Team this season, this final test on the Algarve coast presented the factory supported outfit with a final chance to get everything with the bikes right before the season opener.

Testing can be extremely difficult to gauge the true form of a team. There are simply too many non-disclosed variables – such as tyre compound usage, amounts of fuel in the tank, what engine mode is being run etc – to give onlookers a true indication of who is actually in a strong position or not.

One thing from this test is clear however, Pata Yamaha are definitely looking like they are ready to hit the ground running when the races start. Having finished as the third best team last year (behind KRT and Aruba.it Ducati respectively), the team have targeted victories in the forthcoming season. Following the test in Portugal this week, both the team’s riders will be very confident about their prospects in 2018. Michael van der Mark in particular had nothing but praise for his machine.     

VDM: We had some important things to test, we tried different settings and we found some really good solutions for a number of setups, plus we were really fast and consistent as well. I am really happy with my race rhythm, I did my fastest time on race tyres so, I am really pleased with that and even with used tyres, we were a lot faster here than we have been here before.

For fans, this will come as welcome words indeed for a team who have made no secret that they believe they can challenge KRT this season. Van der Mark’s statements are firmly supported by the timesheets. During the Portuguese round last season, the best time for the flying Dutchman was 1:43.710 – in testing this week his best time was down to just 1:42.028. Even when fuel loads and tyre compounds are taken into account, it is still an astonishing time, and confirms that Yamaha have really made serious progress over the winter.

The progress that has evidently been made was not limited to just Van der Mark’s side of the garage. Team-mate Alex Lowes, the 2013 British Superbike champion and double Suzuka 8 hours winner, also had reason to be delighted with how the test at Portimao unfolded. The 27 year-old from Lincoln chalked up 170 laps over the two days, confirming not just improved pace, but solid reliability as well.

AL: We have had a really strong test because we have managed to find solutions to all the issues I had here at the race, which means I have a lot of optimism heading to Phillip Island! I’ve tried to not push too hard and ‘keep my powder dry’, as they say, before the first race and I am ready to go! It really has been a good few days of testing, we have had some negative things as well, which is always good to get them out the way now instead of during the season and today we finished with a positive performance.”

If both Lowes and Van der Mark were indeed keeping the powder dry, then we should expect the team to come out all guns blazing at Phillip Island next month. Perhaps the early predictions of complete Kawasaki domination this season might have been a little premature.

The 2018 World Superbike Championship begins at the Phillip Island circuit, Australia, 23rd-25th February.

This time last year, following the opening pre-season test, Red Bull-Honda knew they were in a world of trouble. The new Fireblade CBR1000RR had caught everyone, including its makers, by surprise and alarm. The bike was slow and unresponsive. Tune the engine, change the suspension dampers, short swing-arm, long swing-arm, alter the rake – they tried every trick in the book, but the bike would not yield. Perplexing both engineers, mechanics and riders, the season was a long and painful affair. The end of season could not arrive quick enough.

Fast forward to the Circuito de Jerez this week. The demons appear to have been banished.

Spearheading this resurgence is one of the most experienced men in the competition, Leon Camier. The 31 year-old British rider has moved across from MV Agusta, and has immediately made his presence felt. He was obviously in good spirits following a very promising 3rd place finish in the opening pre-season test this week.

LC: I’m really happy with how this test went, we’ve made some good progress and I’m learning the bike more and more. There’s still a lot I’d like to work on at the next test in Portimao and I think as I ride this bike on different tracks I’ll be able to get even more out of our package.

A veiled warning to the likes of Pata-Yamaha and Aruba.it Ducati? Yes. It is true that a rider takes time to adapt when joining a new team, riding styles must alter to get the most out of a different bike. This is no different to someone of Camier’s experience with 185 race starts to his name. Nevertheless the early indications are that he has already got himself ‘dialled in’ as they say. Having spent the previous two seasons wringing the neck of an out of date MV, Camier has the hunger to prove himself in a larger, factory supported team. Additionally, his riding style has already been honed to handle a more volatile machine – which this Honda still is.

The majority of the team’s efforts in Jerez were focused on reliability and race-pace. With multiple long stints with a high level of fuel on board, a spectacular showing was not expected. True to the illogical nature of racing, a spectacular showing was what we got. Rarely outside of the top ten throughout the entirety of the test and reaching lap time parity with the likes of the Yamaha and Ducati outfits, it was a much needed return to form for the whole team.

There can be no doubt that the seemingly wholesale turnaround in the team’s fortunes is a truly collective effort from everybody involved. From the riders and the mechanics, to all those personnel who work back at HRC, it is clear that everyone involved has risen to the challenge. This was a fact not lost by team manager, Kevin Bos.

KB: The Jerez test was a success from a team point of view as we managed to test a lot of new components and made some solid improvement with the CBR1000RR SP2. Leon made some big steps with the bike compared to the test here in November and we were able to find a really good balance with the Fireblade which not only helped improve performance but also gave some benefit in terms of tyre durability. We’re looking forward to keeping the momentum going at Portimao in a few days time

Of course, we will not know fully how close the team are to competing at the front of the field until the opening race of the season at Phillip Island, next month. However one thing is certain, the Red Bull-Honda outfit are already in a much better place than at any point last season.

The long winter break at last ended this week at the Circuito de Jerez, as the World Superbike competitors took part in the first pre-season test. Despite the weather conditions being closer to British standards than Iberian, with a steady band of fog hovering over the circuit on both mornings, the teams and riders were eager to make the most of the time available to them.

Kawasaki Racing Team appear to have picked up in 2018, where they left 2017: out in front of the pack. This should not be surprising, the Japanese factory team dominated the championship last year with both riders, Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes, taking the Lion’s share of the spoils. The latter took the honour of being the fastest of all across the test setting a time of 1:38.889, half a second quicker than Rea and then the rest of the field. KRT have spent the majority of the meeting focusing on race pace, with both riders completing multiple long runs across the two days. Ominously for their opposition, neither of the two ever found themselves lower than fifth place at any time. Sykes’ final lap time underlining the sheer gulf in performance (0.719 seconds) of the factory Kawasaki bikes to the rest of the competition.

At face value, the Abruba.it Ducati team would appear to also have continued in the same vein as last year: second best, but with the potential to fight for race wins at tracks which suit the strength of their bikes. Once again, the Bologna based factory team have Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri piloting the Panigale R machines. Not wanting to reveal too much to their chief rivals, the team focused purely on setup work and long data gathering runs. This was reflected in Davies’ finishing place of P11, 1.83 seconds adrift of Sykes’ fastest time. Although Melandri (1:39.754) did take a headline grabbing P3 at the end of the final day, he was still almost a full second away from the top spot. It is worth remembering that Davies is still recovering from injuries sustained at this circuit at the end of last season. The team are confident he’ll be fully fit come the opening round in Australia next month.

It would however be wrong to assume at this early stage that the championship is a foregone conclusion. The chief opposition to the men in green looks like it might come in the shape of a resurgent Red-Bull Honda team. Whilst we must always take results from testing with a pinch of salt, it does look like Honda will be firmly putting a dreadful 2017 campaign into the box labelled “Dark and Distant Memory”. It is all change with the riders for the new year. Jake Gagne, the 25 year-old Californian, has made the full time switch from the MotoAmerica championship, following an impressive debut at Laguna Seca last season. The team have been quick to emphasise that he will take time to adjust to the bike and as such should not be judged quickly. As such, the American’s side of the garage purely focused on his general bike setup this week. To compliment the signing of the rookie, Honda have acquired the services of one of the most experienced riders in the sport, Leon Camier. The British rider, moving from MV Agusta, took next to no time to adapt to the Fireblade CBR1000RR SP2 and was a constant presence at the sharp end of the time sheets, securing an impressive P3 in the dying minutes of the final day with a time of 1:39.608. Of course the season is still yet to begin but compared to where the team was this time last year, it was about as perfect a start as the team could have wished for.

Pata-Yamaha will also be quietly satisfied with the work completed over the past two days. The early signs are that the factory supported outfit appear to have caught up with rivals Ducati. Alex Lowes (1:40.398) was a permanent fixture inside the top five for the majority of the test, leading the team’s charge ahead of teammate Michael van der Mark (1:40.532). Despite their final standings being dropped down to P7 and P8 respectively, this was simply due to the team not electing to do a low-fuel ‘qualifying style’ run at the end of Wednesday’s session. Additionally, the team had test rider, Niccolo Canepa, on hand to help with the setup work. Together, the three riders completed an impressive 411 laps across the two days. Canepa did however set a hot lap of 1:39.524 at the end of the test to confirm the apparently strong position the team find themselves in.

Elsewhere there was close competition for the privateer teams who make up the rest of the competition. Fresh from the MotoGP paddock Loris Baz (Althea-BMW) marked his arrival to Superbikes with a very promising P10 finish, and within 2 seconds of the full factory supported teams. He headed a group of more experienced competitors in the category including Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee-Aprilia) and Ondrej Jezek (Guandalini Racing Yamaha). The former struggled at Jerez, reportedly unhappy with the balance of his machine, and could only finish 15th with a best time of 1:41.411. The team did at least have a more encouraging test with their second rider, Eugene Laverty (1.39.876), who secured a top 5 placing and ensured the team move forward in the pre-season with a degree of optimism and confidence.

Top 10 Result:

1: Tom Sykes (KRT) – 1:38.889

2: Jonathan Rea (KRT) + 0.581

3: Leon Camier (Red Bull-Honda) +0.719

4: Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Ducati) +0.865

5: Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee-Aprilia) +0.987

6: Jordi Torres (MV Agusta) +1.266

7: Alex Lowes (Pata-Yamaha) +1.509

8: Michael van der Mark (Pata-Yamaha) +1.643

9: Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing Kawasaki) +1.750

10: Loris Baz (Althea-BMW) +1.818

The 2018 FIM World Superbike Championship begins at the Phillip Island Circuit, Australia. Friday 23rd-Sunday 25th February.