2024 WorldSBK Test Jerez, Spain - Day One Results

New bikes provided the same results for the likes of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea, who also made an early impression at the Jerez WorldSBK test.

Despite both riders changing teams for the first time in years, Razgatlioglu and Rea made a very hot start to WorldSBK testing at Jerez. 

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In action for the first time in 2024, Razgatlioglu jumped aboard the M 1000 RR and immediately set the benchmark time, dipping under the 1m 40s barrier.

Rea joined the Turkish star in going underneath the 1m 40s barrier, with Remy Gardner in third place for GRT Yamaha.

Rea, who was less than tenth down on Razgatlioglu, saw a second BMW jump ahead of him as Garrett Gerloff went within +0.048s of Razgatlioglu’ 1:39.873s.

Superbike rookies Nicolo Bulega and Andrea Iannone also made promising starts, as both Italians made their way into the top six with around an hour gone.

Hoping to build on a solid but unspectacular rookie season in 2023, Gardner then jumped to the top of the leaderboard by nearly two tenths, while two-time world champion Alvaro Bautista began to slowly make his way up the order.

Bradley Smith was the first rider to encounter problems as the former MotoGP rider had a crash at turn three.

After seeing Rea get within +0.003s of his top time, which was quickly followed by Iannone going a further +0.002s behind Rea, Gardner lost top spot to Razgatlioglu once again.

The BMW rider set a time of 1:39.627s to move half a tenth clear of the chasing trio, while Alex Lowes bumped himself into the top five.

In the afternoon the leaderboard remained the same until midway through the afternoon hen Alex Lowes made a big jump from sixth to second, closing to within three tenths of Bulega’s time.

As a point of reference, Bulega’s time was set on an SCQ qualifying tyre.

Razgatlioglu held on to third, narrowly ahead of Gardner, Rea and Iannone.

Danilo Petrucci began to up his pace as the day went on, breaking into the top ten and ahead of Alvaro Bautista with a couple hours to go. 

As if his time from this morning wasn’t impressive enough, Bulega nearly went a second quicker and put serious distance between himself and Lowes.

The Italian posted a time of 1:38.292s and moved clear of the Kawasaki rider by over a second.