Alex Lowes continued his sensational form in pre-season testing by topping the final day of running at Phillip Island before this weekend’s season opener. The British riders continued to dominate, filling five of the top six places, but Lowes’ 1:30.859 in Tuesday’s morning session ensured he would see off the challenge of Jonathan Rea despite his pace in the afternoon.
Despite the absence of the injured Davide Giugliano and Randy de Puniet, times tumbled in the morning session with Lowes going faster than last year’s race lap record. The Suzuki rider knocked half a second off his own benchmark from Monday’s running to lead the sensational Jordi Torres and former champion Tom Sykes.
Drizzle fell towards the end of the morning session but conditions were fine for the afternoon. Kawasaki made full use of their final two hours of testing by dominating the session with Sykes and Rea spending all but a couple of minutes on top of the leaderboard. Rea’s best lap of a 1:30.880 saw him top the timesheets but he still remained 0.021s shy of Lowes. Sykes, meanwhile, brought the red flags out with a crash at turn twelve as he tried to match his teammate’s pace.
Leon Haslam was fifth fastest ahead of the sole Aruba.it Ducati of Chaz Davies with David Salom and Nicolas Terol impressing in seventh and eighth. Michael van der Mark remained the leading Honda rider in ninth after a crash for reigning champion Sylvain Guintoli while Giugliano stayed in the overall top ten by virtue of his Monday time.
PHILLIP ISLAND DWO OFFICIAL TEST – FEBRUARY 16-17
1 | Alex Lowes | Suzuki | Voltcom Crescent Suzuki | 1:30.859 |
2 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | Kawasaki Racing Team | 1:30.880 |
3 | Jordi Torres | Aprilia | Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils | 1:30.971 |
4 | Tom Sykes | Kawasaki | Kawasaki Racing Team | 1:31.075 |
5 | Leon Haslam | Aprilia | Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils | 1:31.102 |
6 | Chaz Davies | Ducati | Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team | 1:31.296 |
7 | David Salom | Kawasaki | Team Pedercini | 1:31.510 |
8 | Nicolas Terol | Ducati | Althea Racing | 1:31.593 |
9 | Michael van der Mark | Honda | PATA Honda World Superbike | 1:31.854 |
10 | Davide Giugliano | Ducati | Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team | 1:31.948 |
11 | Niccolo Canepa | EBR | Team Hero EBR | 1:32.002 |
12 | Sylvain Guintoli | Honda | PATA Honda World Superbike | 1:32.220 |
13 | Leon Camier | MV Agusta | MV Agusta Reparto Corse | 1:32.238 |
14 | Leandro Mercado | Ducati | Barni Racing Team | 1:32.239 |
15 | Sylvain Barrier | BMW | BMW Motorrad Italia SBK | 1:32.268 |
16 | Randy de Puniet | Suzuki | Voltcom Crescent Suzuki | 1:32.402 |
17 | Matteo Baiocco | Ducati | Althea Racing | 1:32.430 |
18 | Roman Ramos | Kawasaki | Team Go Eleven | 1:33.349 |
19 | Matthew Walters | Kawasaki | Team Pedercini | 1:33.354 |
20 | Jed Metcher | Kawasaki | Race Center – Demolition Plus | 1:33.570 |
21 | Santiago Barragan | Kawasaki | Grillini SBK Team | 1:34.104 |
22 | Larry Pegram | EBR | Team Hero EBR | 1:34.274 |
23 | Christophe Ponsson | Kawasaki | Grillini SBK Team | 1:34.966 |
24 | Gabor Rizmayer | BMW | BMW Team Toth | 1:35.351 |
25 | Imre Toth | BMW | BMW Team Toth | 1:36.112 |