Bautista and rookie Oettl fastest on final day of Misano WorldSBK test
After battling throughout day-one for top spot, Garrett Gerloff 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 fastest on day-one, Oettl immediately improved his lap time by over seven tenths as he set a 1:34.214s.
Gerloff was a further tenth of a second back in second, while Scott Redding enjoyed a much better start to day-two - the new BMW rider was only tenth out of 12 riders come the 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 calliper and exhaust.
The last WorldSBK rider to hit the Misano track was day-one 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 time of the test until 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 third.
Moments before the Puccetti Kawasaki rider 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 finished 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 swingarm 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 Irish 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 biggest 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.
"Adapting 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 different."
