Phillip Island World Superbike Results: Bautista untouchable on opening day

Results from Free Practice 1, round 1 of the 2023 World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island, Australia.

24 Feb 2023

Alvaro Bautista, Ducati WorldSBK Phillip Island 2023

Alvaro Bautista dominated the opening day of World Superbike action at Phillip Island, while main rivals Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea struggled.

Languishing down the order following FP1, both Bonovo Action BMW riders Loris Baz and Garrett Gerloff made immediate improvements as they bettered their time from FP1.

After setting a low 1m 31s lap to finish top of Practice 1, Bautista also found more pace early on as he broke into the 1m 30s for the first time this weekend.

Making it a Ducati 1-2-3 were Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Phillip Oettl, while Razgatlioglu remained off the pace.

A technical issue meant Scott Redding had to watch the beginning of FP2 from pit lane.

The British rider initially headed out onto the circuit before immediately returning to the BMW garage.

2023 World Superbike Phillip Island, Australia - Free Practice (2) Results
Pos	Rider	Nat	Team	Time
1	Alvaro Bautista	SPA	Aruba.It Racing Ducati	1:31.032s
2	Michael Rinaldi	ITA	Aruba.It Racing Ducati	+0.534s
3	Philipp Oettl	GER	GoEleven Ducati	+0.826s
4	Danilo Petrucci	ITA	Barni Spark Ducati Team	+0.915s
5	Garrett Gerloff	USA	Bonovo Action BMW	+1.091s
6	Dominique Aegerter	SWI	GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team	+1.097s
7	Andrea Locatelli	ITA	PATA Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK	+1.098s
8	Alex Lowes	GBR	Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK	+1.151s
9	Iker Lecuona	SPA	Team HRC WorldSBK	+1.177s
10	Remy Gardner	AUS	GRT Yamaha	+1.213s
11	Lorenzo Baldassarri	ITA	GMT94 Yamaha	+1.259s
12	Michael Van Der Mark	NED	BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	+1.268s
13	Toprak Razgatlioglu	TUR	PATA Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK	+1.492s
14	Jonathan Rea	GBR	Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK	+1.521s
15	Xavi Vierge	SPA	Team HRC WorldSBK	+1.584s
16	Axel Bassani	ITA	Motocorsa Ducati	+1.594s
17	Loris Baz	FRA	Bonovo Action BMW	+1.623s
18	Scott Redding	GBR	BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	+2.233s
19	Tom Sykes	GBR	Puccetti Kawasaki	+2.556s
20	Oliver Konig	CZE	Orelac Racing Kawasaki	+2.666s
21	Hafizh Syahrin	MAL	MIE Honda Racing	+3.090s
22	Eric Granado	BRA	MIE Honda Racing	+3.552s

The only rider within half a second of Bautista, Rinaldi was still over three tenths down on his teammate while Alex Lowes was the first non-Ducati in fourth - +0.847s.

Like Razgatlioglu, Rea was also finding it tough in FP2 as the Kawasaki rider was unable to go any quicker than P15 for a significant period of time.

Continuing his impressive form from FP1, Andrea Locatelli then split the Ducati top three as he moved ahead of Oettl.

Andrea Locatelli Australian WorldSBK. 21 February

Although he started to make improvements during the final 15 minutes, Razgatlioglu was losing huge chunks of time to Bautista in every sector.

Razgatliolglu momentarily moved up to 13th before making that P10 on his next lap, however, more than a second remained between the top two from last season.

As Rea also found time - not enough to get within a second - Bautista then moved the benchmark time forward once again after setting a time of 1:30.623s.

Bautista’s lap put him more than six tenths clear of Rinaldi, while Danilo Petrucci was up to third aboard his Barni Ducati machine.

On course to challenge Bautista, Locatelli then lost three tenths in sector three before crashing at turn ten.

World Superbike weekend Schedule (UK time)

Saturday

Free Practice 3 - 23:50-00:20

Superpole - 02:10-02:25

Race 1 - 05:00

Sunday

Warm-up - 23:30-23:45

Superpole Race - 02:00

Race 2 - 05:00

Bautista tops opening World Superbike practice of 2023

Just as they ended the final of pre-season testing, Bautista and locatelli could barely be separated atop the leaderboard.

The reigning world champion once again got the better of the Pata Yamaha rider, but this time by 0.037s, while Iker Lecuona, who suffered a big moment at turn 4 before crashing at turn ten moments later, also ended the session within a tenth of his fellow Spaniard.

Iker Lecuona Australian WorldSBK, 24 February

Continuing the theme of every test in pre-season, Bautista put together a stunning run of consistent pace which included a stint of 20 laps at the beginning of FP1.

2023 World Superbike Phillip Island, Australia - Free Practice (1) Results
Pos	Rider	Nat	Team	Time
1	Alvaro Bautista	SPA	Aruba.It Racing Ducati	1:31.032s
2	Andrea Locatelli	ITA	PATA Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK	+0.037s
3	Iker Lecuona	SPA	Team HRC WorldSBK	+0.097s
4	Jonathan Rea	GBR	Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK	+0.272s
5	Michael Rinaldi	ITA	Aruba.It Racing Ducati	+0.369s
6	Michael Van Der Mark	NED	BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	+0.378s
7	Alex Lowes	GBR	Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK	+0.427s
8	Toprak Razgatlioglu	TUR	PATA Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK	+0.528s
9	Philipp Oettl	GER	GoEleven Ducati	+0.581s
10	Remy Gardner	AUS	GRT Yamaha	+0.623s
11	Dominique Aegerter	SWI	GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team	+0.823s
12	Scott Redding	GBR	BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	+0.933s
13	Xavi Vierge	SPA	Team HRC WorldSBK	+0.940s
14	Axel Bassani	ITA	Motocorsa Ducati	+0.948s
15	Lorenzo Baldassarri	ITA	GMT94 Yamaha	+1.045s
16	Danilo Petrucci	ITA	Barni Spark Ducati Team	+1.072s
17	Loris Baz	FRA	Bonovo Action BMW	+1.386s
18	Garrett Gerloff	USA	Bonovo Action BMW	+1.625s
19	Oliver Konig	CZE	Orelac Racing Kawasaki	+1.754s
20	Tom Sykes	GBR	Puccetti Kawasaki	+1.983s
21	Hafizh Syahrin	MAL	MIE Honda Racing	+2.849s
22	Eric Granado	BRA	MIE Honda Racing	+3.747s

Six-time WorldSBK champion Rea was nearly three tenths down on Bautista’s time as he finished fourth, while Rinaldi was fifth ahead of Michael Van Der Mark, who made it five different manufacturers inside the top six.

Like on day two of the Phillip Island test, Razgatlioglu failed to match the pace shown by both Rea but in particular Bautista, instead finishing half a second down in eighth.