Davide Giugliano set the pace on the second day of pre-season testing at Jerez as Ducati struck the latest blow in the build-up to the 2015 Superbike World Championship. The Italian edged out Kawasaki duo Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea as well as his own teammate Chaz Davies as the two teams confirmed their status as the squads to beat this year.
The main headline from the final private European test concerned defending champion Sylvain Guintoli who crashed on his third flying lap of day one. The Frenchman was ruled out of the remainder of the test as he returned to England for treatment, leaving Supersport champion Michael van der Mark to go it alone for PATA Honda.
Typically, Giugliano wasn’t too far away from the gravel traps and suffered a crash of his own on day two, although that didn’t stop him returning in the final hour to set a 1:39.332, three tenths quicker than Sykes and almost a second underneath Loris Baz’s 2014 pole time.
The head-to-head battle between Kawasaki’s British teammates looks set to be one of the stories of 2015 and Rea had drawn first blood by topping the timesheets on day one, leading Sykes by less than a tenth, but by the end of Tuesday’s proceedings, Tom had turned the tables to finish second overall.
Davies had a spill of his own on his way to fourth, seven tenths shy of his teammate, while Leon Haslam took fifth aboard his Red Devils Roma Aprilia. Alex Lowes shone on Monday to go second before falling to sixth, just ahead of leading rookies Michael van der Mark, Nicolas Terol and Randy de Puniet.
Testing will resume in Phillip Island on February 16-17, just days ahead of the season’s curtain-raiser on February 22.
| WORLD SUPERBIKE TESTING – JEREZ – JANUARY 26-27 (SBK CLASS TIMES ONLY) | ||||
| POS | RIDER | BIKE | TEAM | TIME/GAP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Davide Giugliano | Ducati | Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team | 1:39.332 |
| 2 | Tom Sykes | Kawasaki | Kawasaki Racing Team | +0.362 |
| 3 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | Kawasaki Racing Team | +0.413 |
| 4 | Chaz Davies | Ducati | Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team | +0.730 |
| 5 | Leon Haslam | Aprilia | Red Devils Roma | +0.737 |
| 6 | Alex Lowes | Suzuki | Voltcom Crescent Suzuki | +0.827 |
| 7 | Michael van der Mark | Honda | PATA Honda World Superbike | +1.258 |
| 8 | Nicolas Terol | Ducati | Althea Racing | +1.433 |
| 9 | Randy de Puniet | Suzuki | Voltcom Crescent Suzuki | +1.645 |
| 10 | Matteo Baiocco | Ducati | Althea Racing | +2.080 |
| 11 | Jordi Torres | Aprilia | Red Devils Roma | +2.651 |
| 12 | Sylvain Barrier | BMW | BMW Motorrad Italia SBK | +2.672 |
| 13 | David Salom | Kawasaki | Team Pedercini | +2.852 |
| 14 | Leandro Mercado | Ducati | Barni Racing Team | +3.245 |
| 15 | Niccolo Canepa | EBR | Team Hero EBR | +3.411 |
| 16 | Larry Pegram | EBR | Team Hero EBR | +7.664 |
| 17 | Sylvain Guintoli | Honda | PATA Honda World Superbike | +10.051 |
