Aragon WorldSBK Test: Rea reigns again as round one approaches

Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea was back on top of the timesheets as the official WorldSBK test concluded at Aragon on Tuesday.

Having led the way in the closing stages of day one, Rea had Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista as challenger as day two fired up. The Spaniard staking his claim with a serious of hot laps in the opening 45-minute session before the six-time world champion returned fire for the final two practices. The only rider to lap in the 1’48s, Rea’s 1’48.714 beat his earlier best from mid-afternoon, which had already maxed out the standings, two-tenths slower.

As was the case on Monday, Pata Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu completed the two-day affair second in the overall times, three-tenths adrift of his 2021 rival and just 0.026s clear of the leading Ducati.

Garrett Gerloff once again placed his GYTR GRT Yamaha in the top four as he tested the full 2022-spec R1 for the first time with Loris Baz maintaining his dominance in the internal BMW battle from fifth thanks to a 1’49.383 lap in FP5.

Andrea Locatelli promoted his Pata Yamaha to sixth in the closing session, 1.1s down on Rea’s pacesetting time but leading a pack of seven riders within three-tenths of each other. Aruba.it Ducati’s Michael Rinaldi headed both HRC riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge, the former Honda rider suffering a fall at turn two, with Philipp Oettl completing the top ten.

British riders Scott Redding and Alex Lowes sat just adrift, with the new BMW recruit assessing the Pirelli’s new SCQ tyre after suffering a crash at turn five. Irishman Eugene Laverty, suffering his own turn nine off on the Bonovo M 1000 RR, BMW replacement rider Ilya Mikhalchik and Second GRT man Kohta Nozane completed the top 15.

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