SBK Jerez test, Day 1: Petrucci on BMW tops the timesheets at 13:30

Wet track, but many Superbike riders are lapping today at Jerez: here’s the situation.

The weather forecast wasn’t wrong: it rained in Jerez and that inevitably affected the first of the two SBK test days at the Andalusian circuit. For about 40 minutes there was no action on track, then gradually the riders started heading out despite the wet asphalt. A condition that has often brought out the best in Danilo Petrucci, the new BMW rider and leader of the timesheets at 1:30 pm. With a 1'52"976 he leads by over 1"2 from Yari Montella’s Ducati Panigale V4 R (Barni Spark Racing Team). In third place is Miguel Oliveira with the other M 1000 RR of the ROKiT BMW Motorrad team.

In the top 5 we also find Stefano Manzi with the GYTR GRT Yamaha team’s R1 and Iker Lecuona with the Aruba.it Ducati team’s Panigale V4 R. Nicolò Bulega has not gone out yet; he’s waiting for track conditions to improve. We’ll see if the 2024 and 2025 Superbike vice world champion will ride at Jerez this afternoon or wait until tomorrow.

Remember that Ducati is racing with a new model in 2026, so development work in pre-season testing is very important. The weather did not play into the needs of the Borgo Panigale manufacturer today in Spain. It should be better tomorrow.

For Bimota, test rider Xavi Fores lapped and then Axel Bassani also went out, while Alex Lowes is expected to do so only on Thursday. At Honda, the first to take action was test rider Tetsuta Nagashima; afterward Jake Dixon also began putting in laps on his CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP. Jonathan Rea, HRC’s new test rider, ran yesterday in good track conditions.

Alvaro Bautista is making his absolute on-track debut with the Barni Spark Racing Team, and the same goes for rookie Alberto Surra of Motocorsa Racing.