Supersport Phillip Island: Jaume Masia out of this world on day one, ZXMoto means business!

You don’t win World Championships by accident: Jaume Masia, former Moto3 world champion, after a year of apprenticeship is putting himself forward as the main candidate for the World Supersport crown. On Monday’s test day at Phillip Island he was dominant.

The Spaniard topped both sessions of the day, masterfully riding the Orelac satellite team’s Ducati Panigale V2. In the morning he laid down an emphatic 1'32"541; in the afternoon session, with hotter asphalt (39 °C), he didn’t manage to lower the time but was still once again the best of all. Let’s remember that the race lap record at Phillip Island is 1'31"271, set by Yari Montella in the ’24 edition.

Jaume Masia experienced a debut season in Supersport with highs and lows. He wrapped up the campaign by sweeping Race 2 at Jerez, beating the new champion Stefano Manzi, so the new adventure starts where the previous one ended. In the meantime, he took the satisfaction of getting his nose in front of Philipp Oettl, who, with the Ducati Feel Racing squad (the same technical operation as the factory Superbike team), opened with the third-best time. The second-generation rider must redeem a 2025 well below the expectations of a team that had previously dominated with Bulega and Huertas.

Pre-season tests should always be taken with a grain of salt, although at Phillip Island they’re more indicative because the weather conditions are ideal and in a few days on the same track the battle will already be on. It’s a bit striking to see the first Yamaha R9 only in fifth with the spectacular Turk Can Oncu, who stayed in the feeder series to clean up. Twelve months ago here, Stefano Manzi launched his march toward the World title, so the benchmark is a heavy one. Instead, Triumph’s week gets off to a great start with home hero Oli Bayliss: Troy’s son will also need to step it up—he’s starting to be a veteran in Supersport—and the British brand seems to have, at least at these latitudes, excellent potential: second time in both sessions.

The most intriguing technical takeaway from this Monday comes from ZXMoto, the Chinese brand making its debut in the junior World Championship with technical guidance from Evan Bros, which for years was Yamaha’s benchmark in the category. It was said that the ZXMoto had great potential, but few imagined it would already be so close to the front. Valentin Debise finished twelfth, one second off the top; a decent start as well for the sister bike ridden by Federico Caricasulo. Let’s remember that ZXMoto is the only Chinese brand present at Phillip Island: QJ is competing in the European Cup for the class, so it will start next month at Portimao (Portugal).