Pre-season testing for the 2020 Superbike World Championship has finished up at Phillip Island with Kawasaki supremo Jonathan Rea atop the timesheets.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The production title's greatest ever exponent was fastest in both Tuesday sessions, his quickest lap a 1 minute 30.523 second effort on his ZX-10RR.
Frenchman Loris Baz (Yamaha, 1:30.758) kept the pressure on Rea, with British riders filling the next two spots - Leon Haslam (Honda, 1:30.882) and Scott Redding (Ducati, 1:30.885).
Redding's afternoon session was tarnished by a fall but the former MotoGP rider and reigning British Superbike champion dusted himself off to complete the shakedown.
The top eight were within a second of Rea, with Tom Sykes (BMW) fifth from Michael van der Mark (Yamaha), Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) and Michael Rinaldi (Ducati).
World No. 2 Alvaro Bautista (Honda) was back in 17th but again had the fastest bike down the main chute.
On combined times in the four session, two-day test, the order saw Rea at the top, followed by Yamaha's Baz, BMW's Sykes and young gun Turk Razgatlioglu.
Then came Haslam on the Honda (overall 5th) followed by Ducati's new recruit Redding, Dutchman Michael van der Mark , Ducati's Michael Ruben Rinaldi, BMW's Eugene Laverty and last year's winner at Phillip Island, Alvaro Bautista for Honda.
The scene is now set for the most anticipated WorldSBK title in recent memory starting this Friday to Sunday.
Bautista, Rea and Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) scored the trifecta in all three races in 2019 but the arrival of hot new talent like Redding and Honda's return to the series have added to the intrigue ahead of the 33rd season.
As well as WorldSBK, Phillip Island will also host World Supersport action with Australia's 16-year-old wild card Oli Bayliss.
Bayliss, son of motorcycle legend Troy, finished 20th overall after the four session WorldSSP test aboard his Yamaha YZF R6.
Australian Associated Press
