Razgatlioglu puts #1 on top
Yamaha’s first-ever WSB Number 1 plate goes fastest during Barcelona test
‘Toprak was faster than his ’21 lap record’
It was goodbye 54 and hello number 1 as world champion Toprak Razgatlioglu set the fastest time in last week’s World Superbike test. In the most important gathering of the year thus far, with all five manufacturers together for the first time, Yamaha showed off the #1 plate they were unable to use when previous WSB winner Ben Spies headed to MotoGP.
The traditional April showers arrived early in Barcelona – so early that they hit the end of March. Although that left just three hours of dry track time on Saturday, Friday was dry throughout. For the frontrunners, the target was to finalise overall bike setups in order to use next week’s MotorLand test to work on track-specific settings before Race 1. Not only that, but Barcelona yields notoriously low grip levels, presenting an opportunity to simulate the lack of adhesion at various venues when temperatures soar across the summer; being able to ride quickly and consistently with little grip on offer is a vital element to becoming World Champion.
Razgatlioglu’s 1:40.571 was almost a full second quicker than his 2021 race lap record (1:41.493). The Turk was also delighted with his wet weather performance, admitting this was the first time he’d felt 100% comfortable. This was also the first time Yamaha had used their new electronics in the wet; the data was worth its weight in gold. There was a new exhaust to improve top speed, sporting a steeper angle. The structure under the seat is also different, all-carbon as opposed to the carbon-aluminium of last year. Toprak also compared shorter and longer-length swingarms. In his words, he was ‘lost’ on Day 1 but got it together on Day 2. Turning in long corners continued to be his issue – has the Champion finally got it sorted? Aragon is full of those, so we’ll know next week.
Team-mate Andrea Locatelli had a tougher time, highsiding at Turn 4 just before the end of Friday; the bike momentarily went up in flames as he limped away, his mechanics working late into Friday night to fix it.
At GRT, Garrett Gerloff felt at home in the low-grip conditions thanks to his motocross background; the American was thrilled that changes he made at the Misano test continued to pay off. Now in year three, the Texan’s improved WSB bike and circuit knowledge is showing.
With Razgatlioglu set on retaining his number one status it’s hard to call who will be his closest contender, Alvaro Bautista or Jonathan Rea. Bautista’s Ducati was two tenths quicker than Rea’s Kawasaki but single lap times never tell the full tale. It had been seven weeks since KRT’s last test at Portimao. Six-time World Champion Rea loves chasing times but had to work patiently through his programme, trying aerodynamic fins on the tank as used by teammate Alex Lowes;
Rea decided these were not to his liking. Saving half a day’s allocation by not riding in the wet, Rea continued to work on starts, experimenting with clutch lever ratios. For race pace, Rea explained: “I changed something on the rear. We can keep working on that to gain entry traction on braking and commit to the apex with force – especially when the tyres go off. We are getting stronger on worn tyres.”
Rea was fortunate to avoid a Friday crash when contact was made at Turn 10 with Oli Bayliss’ Supersport Ducati.
Bautista crashed – just as he’d done at Portimao and Misano. The Spaniard trialled an evolution of his new swingarm with a different rigidity. The top six all went underneath the record but, second only to Razgatlioglu, it was hard to believe this was Bautista’s first ride at Barcelona on a Panigale – especially when he said he wasn’t pushing for a lap time but focusing on race pace!