Bautista and rookie Oettl fastest on final day of Misano WorldSBK test

After battling throughout day-one for top spot, Garrett Gerlo✅ff and Bautista renewed their fight to see who would finish the Misano WorldSBK test fastest, but not before impressive rookie Oettl topped the opening session.
Fifth f𒅌astest on day-one, Oettl immediately improved his lap time by over seven tenths as he set a 1:34.214𓃲s.
Gerloff was a further tenth of a second back in second, while Scott Redding enjoyed a much better star🏅t to day-two - the new BMW rider was only tenth out of 12 riders come the𒁃 end of Wednesday’s running.
World Superbike Test Misano, Italy - Thursday Results (Final) | ||||
Pos | Rider | Nat | Team | Time |
1 | Alvaro Bautista | SPA | Aruba.It Racing Ducati | 1:33.574s |
2 | Garrett Gerloff | USA | GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team | 1:34.686s |
3 | Lucas Mahias | FRA | Puccetti Kawasaki | 1:34.058s |
4 | Philipp Oettl | GER | GoEleven Ducati | 1:34.214s |
5 | Michael Rinaldi | ITA | Aruba.It Racing Ducati | 1:34.316s |
6 | Scott Redding | GBR | BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team | 1:34.406s |
7 | Eugene Laverty | IRL | Bonovo Action BMW | 1:34.443s |
8 | Loris Baz | FRA | Bonovo Action BMW | 1:34.476s |
9 | Kohta Nozane | JPN | GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team | 1:34.780s |
10 | Axel Bassani | ITA | Motocorsa Ducati | 1:34.865s |
11 | Luca Bernardi | SM | Barni Spark Ducati Team | 1:34.930s |
12 | Christophe Ponsson | FRA | Gil Motor Sport-Yamaha | 1:36.167s |
Oettl, who will be competing on a revised Paniglae V4-R in 2022, spent a significant portion of the day working on GoEleven Ducati’s new fork, brake cܫalliper and exhaust.
The last WorldSBK rider to hit the Misano track was day-onಞe pacesetter Bautista. However, it didn’t take the Spaniard long to find his rhythm as he went quickest with a first sub 1m 34s lap of the day just after lunch.
Bautista then went even quicker to post a time of 1:33.722s, which was the best lap ൲time of the test un𓆉til Gerloff bettered the Ducati rider with a 1:33.686s.
The top three of Gerloff, Bautista and Oettl remained intact until the final hour when Lucas Mahias went from fifth🌄 to th💫ird.
Moments before the Puccetti Kawasaki rid♔er set a time of 1:34.058s, Bautista went back to the top of the leaderboard, a position he retained until the close of play.
Sixth fastest 🍷was Michael Rinaldi as the Italian finis🐼hed close to eight tenths behind team-mate Bautista.
After missing a private Aruba.it Ducati-organised test in Jerez last December due to injury, Rinaldi got his first taste of the team’s new swingar🔯m that Bautista tried during the Spanish outing.
After a solid🍃 morning which saw Bonovo Action BMW rider Eugene Laverty climb as high as P3 on the timingsheets, the Iri🌱sh rider eventually dropped to P7 - finishing less than half a tenth behind factory rider Redding.
A similar margin split Laverty and team-mate Loris 🎶Baz as the former Kawasaki and Yamaha rider was +0.036s back.
Speaking after day-one, Redding highlighted the change from a V4 to an inline-four engine as the big𒈔gest hurdle to overcome this season, while saying under-revving was a problem until this week’s Misano test.
Redding told WorldSBK.com: "The first impression of the BMW team was great. I’m a happy rider so far. My adaptation💫 to the BMW was a bit different to what I expected.
"I’m a rider that can ride anything anywhere, anytime. But it was a little bit more difficult I must say.﷽
"I’ve spent so many years on a V4 that the changeover was difficult; not actually riding the bike, but me feeling comfortable with the style of the engine revving, the way I need to take corners.💟
"A💖dapting to the inline-four was the most difficult thing for me because I felt like I was going to blow up the engine [laughs].
"♏The guys were like ‘you need to rev it and I was like I am, I am’.
"That was difficult for me but since I’ve come back I’m revving it like it needs to be. The riding and cornering is not so differen💟t."