The first World Superbike test in Aragon took place in mixed conditions after overnight and early morning rain drenched the Alcañiz circuit.
World Supersport 300 rider Ana Carrasco was the first to venture out, over an hour after testing had begun. Three flying laps into her first stint, all eyes moved to the Aruba.it Ducati garage, as Scott Redding took to the track on board the V4 R.
But as the track dried over the lunch break, Jonathan Rea and his new teammate Alex Lowes took to the circuit, Rea ultimately ending the day quickest, setting a lap time of 1’50.416 ahead of rookie Scott Redding.
The British Superbike champion completed 51 laps around the Aragon circuit whilst teammate Chaz Davies focused on new ideas concerning the chassis and electronics of his Ducati.
Splitting the two Ducati’s on the timesheets was Pata Yamaha‘s Michael Van der Mark, who ended the opening day 0.5s off champion Rea.
The Dutchman has inherited Lowes’ former crew chief Andrew Pitt, who joins Van der Mark’s side of the garage for the 2020 season.
Rounding out the top five on his debut with the team was young Turk Toprak Razgatlioglu, who completed 47 laps on the 2020 Yamaha R1.
Alex Lowes had a strong start to his 2020 campaign, understanding how to ride the Kawasaki, and having to settle in to a brand new team. The Englishman ended the day 6th, one second off Rea’s time.
Garrett Gerloff made his World Superbike debut alongside 2019 World Supersport runner up Federico Caricasulo in the GRT Yamaha team, with the pair finishing 7th and 9th respectively.
The rookie duo completed a total of 109 laps between them.
Leon Camier leaves Honda for Barni Ducati and ended his first day onboard the Panigale in eighth overall ahead of Caricasulo.
It is rumoured that Ducati will roll out a new bike for Redding and Davies to try throughout the second day of test action, where teams and riders will hope for more consistent weather.
Track action restarts tomorrow at 10:00 Local Time (GMT+1), before the riders set off for a two-week break before travelling to Jerez.
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