Submitted by David Emmett on
The WorldSBK field has gotten the first test of 2019 under their collective belts, and christened the new asphalt at the Jerez track. As you might expect, it was Jonathan Rea who was fastest, just shy of Marco Melandri's Superpole lap record from 2017. The fact that Rea set his time on race rubber may well give his rivals pause for thought. The KRT Kawasaki rider had by far the fastest pace of the WorldSBK riders, racking up a total of 14 laps of 1'39, while his rivals could manage no more than a handful.
Although Rea was the fastest of the WorldSBK riders, he was a fraction slower than HRC test rider Stefan Bradl, at Jerez with the WorldSBK field testing the Honda RC213V MotoGP bike before it gets shipped back to Malaysia for the first test at Sepang.
Alex Lowes was second quickest on the Pata Yamaha, two tenths off the time of Rea, and a tenth quicker than Rea's KRT Kawasaki teammate Leon Haslam. Alvaro Bautista was the fastest Ducati, half a second slower than Rea, and three tenths faster than Toprak Razgatlioglu. Sandro Cortese was the second fastest Yamaha rider, finishing just ahead of Michael van der Mark and Marco Melandri.
Although Tom Sykes noted the 15th fastest time on the official timing, but the SMR team was having issues getting the official Dorna transponder to talk to the BMW S1000RR electronics package. A crash in the morning meant Sykes lost a lot of time, as spares for the brand new bike are still a little limited. Sandro Cortese was another crasher, while Chaz Davies spent very little time on track after hurting his back in a crash on Wednesday.
In the WorldSSP class, it was Federico Caricasulo who once again led the way on the Yamaha YZF-R6, finishing ahead of his former teammate Lucas Mahias, now riding a Kawasaki. Raffaele De Rosa was third fastest on the MV Agusta 675 F3.
Overall impressions of the new surface were positive, riders telling Dorna WorldSBK commentator Steve English that the issues at Turn 1 and Turn 6 had been completely solved. The surface was no longer breaking up at Turn 8, but the riders were complaining about bumps at the fast left hander leading into the stadium section.
The paddock now packs up and heads to Portimao, where they will test on on Sunday and Monday.
Times from Thursday:
| Pos | No | Class | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Prev |
| 1 | 2 | mgp | Stefan Bradl | Honda RC213V | 1:39.152 | ||
| 2 | 1 | sbk | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 1:39.160 | ||
| 3 | 22 | sbk | Alex Lowes | Yamaha YZF-R1 | 1:39.372 | 0.212 | 0.212 |
| 4 | 91 | sbk | Leon Haslam | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 1:39.502 | 0.342 | 0.130 |
| 5 | 19 | sbk | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati Panigale V4R | 1:39.620 | 0.460 | 0.118 |
| 6 | 54 | sbk | Toprak Razgatlioglu | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 1:39.942 | 0.782 | 0.322 |
| 7 | 11 | sbk | Sandro Cortese | Yamaha YZF-R1 | 1:40.075 | 0.915 | 0.133 |
| 8 | 60 | sbk | Michael van der Mark | Yamaha YZF-R1 | 1:40.145 | 0.985 | 0.070 |
| 9 | 33 | sbk | Marco Melandri | Yamaha YZF-R1 | 1:40.469 | 1.309 | 0.324 |
| 10 | 21 | sbk | Michael R Rinaldi | Ducati Panigale V4R | 1:40.540 | 1.380 | 0.071 |
| 11 | 7 | sbk | Chaz Davies | Ducati Panigale V4R | 1:40.621 | 1.461 | 0.081 |
| 12 | 36 | sbk | Leandro Mercado | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 1:40.794 | 1.634 | 0.173 |
| 13 | 50 | sbk | Eugene Laverty | Ducati Panigale V4R | 1:40.879 | 1.719 | 0.085 |
| 14 | 81 | sbk | Jordi Torres | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 1:41.066 | 1.906 | 0.187 |
| 15 | 66 | sbk | Tom Sykes | BMW S1000RR | 1:41.206 | 2.046 | 0.140 |
| 16 | 28 | sbk | Markus Reiterberger | BMW S1000RR | 1:41.231 | 2.071 | 0.025 |
| 17 | 52 | sbk | Alessandro Delbianco | Honda CBR1000RR | 1:42.353 | 3.193 | 1.122 |
| 1 | 64 | ssp | Federico Caricasulo | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 1:42.529 | ||
| 2 | 44 | ssp | Lukas Mahias | Kawasaki ZX-6R | 1:42.751 | 0.222 | 0.222 |
| 3 | 3 | ssp | Raffaele De Rosa | MV Agusta F3 675 | 1:42.771 | 0.242 | 0.020 |
| 4 | 121 | ssp | Randy Krummenacher | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 1:42.898 | 0.369 | 0.127 |
| 5 | 16 | ssp | Jules Cluzel | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 1:43.300 | 0.771 | 0.402 |
| 6 | 78 | ssp | Hikari Okubo | Kawasaki ZX-6R | 1:43.404 | 0.875 | 0.104 |
| 7 | 94 | ssp | Corentin Perolari | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 1:43.858 | 1.329 | 0.454 |
| 8 | 86 | ssp | Ayrton Badovini | Kawasaki ZX-6R | 1:44.564 | 2.035 | 0.706 |
| 9 | 122 | ssp | Federico Fuligni | MV Agusta F3 675 | 1:45.144 | 2.615 | 0.580 |
| 10 | 47 | ssp | Rob Hartog | Kawasaki ZX-6R | 1:45.394 | 2.865 | 0.250 |
| 11 | 10 | ssp | Nacho Calero | Kawasaki ZX-6R | 1:46.054 | 3.525 | 0.660 |
| 12 | 6 | ssp | María Herrera | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 1:46.957 | 4.428 | 0.903 |
Comments
SSP Times VS MotoGP Times
How on earth do the 600s get within 3.5 secs of a multimillion dollar motogp prototype?
Comparing times between classes
Comparing times between classes is a tricky business. A lot of factors play into the lap time, and the nature of the track makes a huge difference. There is nowhere a MotoGP bike can use its speed at Jerez (I don't think they crack 300 km/h there, as opposed to 340+ at Qatar, Barcelona, Mugello, etc), and a lot of the track is about corner speed, with relatively slow speed corners, and some hard acceleration. So a MotoGP bike can never use its advantages there, and it's much more about the rider
Contrast Jerez with a track like Qatar, where both series ride, and the gap between MotoGP and WorldSSP is more like 8 seconds, because MotoGP bikes are much closer to their engineering limits at the circuit.
But also, don't underestimate the difference that even 3 seconds a lap make. It sounds close, until you watch the gap grow lap after lap. 10 laps into a race, and you are waiting half a minute for the slower bike to pass...
To add to this...
Every fraction of a second as you approach the limits of engineering cost exponentially more.
OMG Alex Lowes 102 laps..
talk about getting a pile of data. I supose if you've tested all the new parts, there's no need to come in and talk about them, or there was a lot of bike switching and they'll talk about it later.