WorldSBK Phillip Island Test: ‘Racing is different, they will push!’ - Bautista

Alvaro Bautista’s WorldSBK title defence got off to a strong start after the Aruba.it Ducati rider topped pre-season testing at Phillip Island.

With just two days left before the opening round of 2023 gets underway at the Australian circuit, Bautista showcased consistent pace in both of Tuesday’s two hour sessions, commanding the timesheets with a 1’30.272 best to hold off Pata Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli and Bologna teammate Michael Rinaldi in the overall times.

“I think from the first day with this bike, I feel good.,” Bautista said of his evolutionary Panigale V4R. “We didn’t have to make big changes on the bike, just small details. Yesterday we try some setups, but today we were focused only on tyres and to get the maximum feeling with the tyres.

“In this afternoon I did a Superpole race simulation with the SC0 tyre, so ten laps, then race 23 laps simulation.

While the preparation has been exhaustive, a late delivery of Pirelli tyres - scheduled for before the test but yet to arrive as the chequered flag dropped - forced the Spaniard to adapt the initial plan.

“I did many, many laps during these two days.,” Bautista continued. “Yesterday, I did 88 laps and today I think I did 80, so tyres, we have in the limit but at least we have to arrive always 20 laps with the tyre. Normally, in a normal test you change after 15/14 but here you have to arrive to 20 laps. For me, I prefer this because you can work more specific for the race and less for the time attack. Especially this morning, because we had two SC0 tyre from the rear and I use one this morning just to see the feeling but I didn’t have a good front so have to try with a soft front, but it was crazy. In the first lap, I was almost crashing because no good feeling