2017 January WorldSBK Test, Day 1: Rea on Top

The 2017 season is now officially underway, as bikes roll back out for testing. First up are the denizens of the World Superbike series, with most of the major teams getting underway at a sunny, but not especially warm, Jerez de la Frontera circuit.

A good selection of teams are present, including the Kawaski, Honda, Yamaha, Ducati factory teams, the Milwaukee Aprilia squad – now resplendent in their official 2017 colors – the Althea BSB team, and Puccetti Kawasaki.

The WorldSBK riders are joined by the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team from BSB, as well as a selection of World Supersport and Superstock 1000 riders.

Reigning champion Jonathan Rea topped the timesheets, starting the new season where he left off the previous one. Rea was a quarter of a second faster than his Kawasaki teammate Tom Sykes, and six tenths quicker than Chaz Davies on the Aruba.it Ducati.

Marco Melandri put in a strong showing on his return to WorldSBK, ending just under three hundredths off the pace of Ducati teammate Davies. Alex Lowes was the fastest Yamaha rider, nine tenths off the pace of Rea.

Zulfahmi Khairuddin was the fastest of the World Supersport riders, over half a second ahead of Jules Cluzel, and just ahead of Nacho Calero. Marco Faccani was the quickest in the Superstock 1000 class.

Tuesday was also a day for debuts. The Ten Kate (soon to be Red Bull) Honda team rolled out the brand new 2017 Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade at Jerez, a bike with a very different sounding exhaust note.

The brand new Yamaha R6 was out on track too, with Federico Caricasulo and Lucas Mahias riding what looked to be an almost standard road bike. Neither of the official GRT riders were using a transponder.

Times at the end of Tuesday, January 24th:

Pos	Class	Rider	Bike	Time	Diff	Prev	Laps
1	SBK	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1:40.162	–	–	60
2	SBK	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1:40.422	0.260	0.260	61
3	SBK	Chaz Davies	Ducati Panigale R	1:40.784	0.622	0.362	68
4	SBK	Marco Melandri	Ducati Panigale R	1:40.812	0.650	0.028	71
5	SBK	Alex Lowes	Yamaha YZF-R1	1:41.058	0.896	0.246	55
6	SBK	Xavi Fores	Ducati Panigale R	1:41.396	1.234	0.338	50
7	SBK	Lorenzo Savadori	Aprilia RSV4 RF	1:41.416	1.254	0.020	55
8	SBK	Jordi Torres	BMW S1000RR	1:41.619	1.457	0.203	65
9	SBK	Nicky Hayden	Honda CBR1000RR	1:41.830	1.668	0.211	36
10	SBK	Michael vd Mark	Yamaha YZF-R1	1:41.908	1.746	0.078	67
11	SBK	Eugene Laverty	Aprilia RSV4 RF	1:42.142	1.980	0.234	52
12	SBK	Stefan Bradl	Honda CBR1000RR	1:42.255	2.093	0.113	47
13	SBK	Markus Reiterberger	BMW S1000RR	1:42.530	2.368	0.275	61
14	SBK	Randy Krummenacher	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1:42.747	2.585	0.217	44

1	SSP	Zulfahmi Khairuddin	Kawasaki ZX-6R	1:45.658			44
2	SSP	Jules Cluzel	Honda CBR600RR	1:46.182	0.524	0.524	52
3	SSP	Nacho Calero	Kawasaki ZX-6R	1:46.345	0.687	0.163	60
4	SSP	Robin Mulhauser	Honda CBR600RR	1:46.479	0.821	0.134	55
5	SSP	Kyle Ryde	Kawasaki ZX-6R	1:46.729	1.071	0.250	52
6	SSP	Hikari Okubo	Honda CBR600RR	1:47.107	1.449	0.378	64

1	STK	Marco Faccani	Ducati Panigale R	1:43.769			26
2	STK	Michael Rinaldi	Ducati Panigale R	1:44.023	0.254	0.254	70
3	STK	Mike Jones	Ducati Panigale R	1:44.211	0.442	0.188	53
4	STK	Alessandro Valia	Ducati Panigale R	1:46.256	2.487	2.045	26
5	STK	Julian Puffe	BMW S1000RR	1:46.932	3.163	0.676	53

1	BSB	Leon Haslam	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1:42.774			52
2	BSB	Luke Mossey	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1:43.574	0.800	0.800	35