Jerez test preview
Who’s fast as WSB heads towards season opener
The much-anticipated, all-new, HRC prepared Fireblades of Leon Haslam and Alvaro Bautista will be finally revealed for the first time today (Wednesday) as WSB pre-season testing resumes at Jerez. Then, after two days at the Spanish circuit, the teams head west to continue their programmes at Portimao in Portugal. In typical HRC fashion, all testing of the new Fireblade so far has been done behind closed doors with riders and personnel strictly forbidden from talking to the media. But that hasn’t stopped rumours circulating that lap records are already being broken – plus others suggesting that the project is running behind schedule. So Jerez will reveal the truth as the world’s media sees the new Fireblade in action for the first time and talk with riders Bautista and Haslam who will be out on track with their Yamaha, Ducati, Kawasaki and BMW rivals. At Kawasaki, five-time world champion Jonathan Rea and new teammate Alex Lowes continue their preparations at the circuit where they infamously collided at the last corner of last year’s race. Like Pata Yamaha pairing Michael van der Mark and Toprak Razgatlioglu, the Kawasaki duo pick up from where they left off at the Aragon and Jerez tests at the end of 2019. BMW, meanwhile, are one test behind, as riders Eugene Laverty and 2013 champion Tom Sykes weren’t at Aragon.
Meanwhile, Aruba Ducati duo Chaz Davies and Scott Redding are looking to make the most of comparing their data having stressed how important it is that they have similar body weights and physiques. Last season the huge differences between Davies and then teammate Bautista made any direct comparisons impossible.
But Leon Camier will not be in Jerez or Portimao. Following his November crash in Aragon, the Englishman has had more shoulder surgery and remains unable to ride. In his place is former Moto3 and World Supersport champion Sandro Cortese who is currently without a seat. It remains to be seen if Cortese will start the season on Camier’s Barni Ducati, with the Phillip Island opener barely a month away. The Jerez test takes place Wednesday (today) and Thursday with latest forecasts suggesting an outside possibility of rain on Thursday.
‘Rumours are that lap records are already being broken’