WorldSBK Catalunya Test Day 2: Rea Reigns over Barcelona

April 1, 2021April 1, 2021 EMR Writer

Jonathan Rea once again leads the way in the WorldSBK test after topping day 1 yesterday.

Jonathan Rea pushes the limits of the Superbike class once again as he goes half a second faster than his best time yesterday, he has been working on refining his already super competitive ZX-10RR as he eyes his seventh consecutive Superbike crown despite the talent increasing in the class year on year. A rider who is the perfect example of this increasing talent is Garrett Gerloff, the American joined the class from MotoAmerica last year and almost instantly got to grips with the series despite never seeing half of the tracks he raced on.

Gerloff finished his rookie season with 3 podiums overall and now has eyes on Jonathan Rea as he aims to improve his pace on the new Yamaha R1 he is riding this year, Gerloff finished today’s test in P3 overall however if you wind back the clocks to lunchtime you will have seen he was P1 overall before eventually finishing the day just 0.233 from Rea’s best time. Stuck between this duo is another rider who has eyes on Rea, Scott Redding, in 2020 he was another hugely competitive rookie in the class joining after spending many years in Grand Prix racing before scooping up a title in BSB as he worked to rediscover his love and passion for racing in 2019.

After finding this he would join the Superbike series in 2020 and was instantly an issue for Jonathan Rea, the duo would eventually battle down to the very last round with Rea taking the title, this year Redding knows he has it in him to fight again and will stop at nothing to put his Panigale V4 R on the top step of the podium, the Ducati rider today spent his time working on some new parts with his teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi in P5.

Rookies eh? Who’d have em?! BMW would that’s who, in P4 Jonas Folger made his name known once more, the multiple Moto2 race winner and MotoGP podium finisher joins the class after demolishing everyone last year in the IDM Superbike championship notching up a 100% race win record winning every single race on a Yamaha R1. For 2021 he rides a BMW in their satellite Bonovo MGM Racing Team and is already proving a point of being rapid in the class, he has been working on improving his racing set up which includes electronics settings.

Tom Sykes was the second-fastest BMW behind Folger in P6 as he leads Alex Lowes and rookie Andrea Locatelli in P8, the 2020 World Supersport champion Locatelli had some issues during the morning but was able to rectify these and set some lap times, unfortunately, his teammate Toprak Razgatlioglu was sent home after spinning 9 laps as he tested positive twice for COVID-19 following the first test held on Wednesday, unfortunately for Toprak the first positive result only came through AFTER he had already started testing, he was required to stop and do another test which was positive, he was sent home as well as Alvaro Bautista who reportedly suffered some pain following a training accident.

Rounding off the top 10 were Chaz Davies and Leon Haslam with rookies Axel Bassani and Tito Rabat finishing in P12 and P13 ahead of Michael van der Mark.

Full results: