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

Alvaro Bautista finished the final day of WorldSBK testing at Misano quickest, while 2022 rookie Philipp Oettl was top rookie for a second consecutive day after claiming fourth overall.
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)
PosRiderNatTeamTime
1Alvaro BautistaSPAAruba.It Racing Ducati1:33.574s
2Garrett GerloffUSAGRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team1:34.686s
3Lucas MahiasFRAPuccetti Kawasaki1:34.058s
4Philipp OettlGERGoEleven Ducati1:34.214s
5Michael RinaldiITAAruba.It Racing Ducati1:34.316s
6Scott ReddingGBRBMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team1:34.406s
7Eugene LavertyIRLBonovo Action BMW1:34.443s
8Loris BazFRABonovo Action BMW1:34.476s
9Kohta NozaneJPNGRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team1:34.780s
10Axel BassaniITAMotocorsa Ducati1:34.865s
11Luca BernardiSMBarni Spark Ducati Team1:34.930s
12Christophe PonssonFRAGil Motor Sport-Yamaha1:36.167s

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."

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