Phillip Island WorldSBK Test Final Times – Report – Images TechTricks365

WorldSBK 2025

Phillip Island Test

The potential for showers had been forecast for this afternoon and the light precipitation arrived just after 1230.   An hour later, just before the final Superbike session, a spooky mist descended across Phillip Island. It didn’t actually seem to rain, but the mist was so dense and heavy that it still managed to blanket the circuit with a light coating of water.

The first Superbike riders to head out of pit-lane and confront the mist and sketchy track surface in this afternoon’s final two-hour test session were Remy Gardner and Tetsuta Nagashima.  They were eventually joined by Alvaro Bautista, Garrett Gerloff and Dominique Aegerter. But 45-minutes into the session they were the only five riders that had turned a wheel. Bautista was quickest at 1m44.503. Clearly the track was offering up even less grip than it looked.

Just as the final hour of the two-day test approached, Yari Montella, Ryan Vickers and Danilo Petrucci hit the track. Petrucci went top with his first flying lap, a 1m43.750, then returned to the pits.  The circuit was then silent for quite some time.  Patches of water on the exits of turn 3 and turn 11 making track conditions far from perfect.

It was not until there was less than half an hour left before anyone else ventured out. Toprak Razgatlioglu joined the track and a number of other riders followed him only to also come straight back in. Teams were now taking the opportunity to practice the compulsory stop they will be required to make during the races this weekend.

With around 15 minutes remaining the track had cleaned up enough for some respectable lap-times to be set. The bravest early on was Scott Redding with a 1m30.635 before then taking to the gravel at turn eight.

Then it was on for young and old…

Alex Lowes the first in the 29s this afternoon, a 1m29.991 to knock his brother from top spot.  The Bimota man then improved to a 1m29.808 but that didn’t stop Andrea Iannone displacing him at the top of the timing monitors, a 1m29.797 to the Italian.

Not for long though as Nicolo Bulega once again reasserted his dominance on top, pretty much where he has been throughout the two days of testing. A 1m29.634 to Bulega, who was then relegated to P2 by Toprak Razgatlioglu, a 1m29.342 to the World Champion.

Bulega returned fire with a 1m29.133 just before the chequered flag.  Toprak improved to 1m29.247 but Bulega still had the hammer down on his final lap… Bulega was three-tenths quicker at the third split only for the timing system to then declare the session finished… Nonetheless, Bulega completed his perfect record of topping all four sessions that took place across the two days of testing.

Remy Gardner crashed at turn three on his final lap. The Australian finishing the final session 11th. Gardner set his best lap on Monday afternoon, a 1m30.223, and was one of only a few riders to not improve at all today, ending the test 16th on combined times.

Toprak actually did his fastest time of the test in that rushed end to the fourth session, a 1m29.247 to end the test fourth. The only other rider to do his fastest lap of the two-day test in that final session was Dominique Aegerter, but he was 17th on combined times, just behind his GYTR GRT team-mate Remy Gardner.

Both yesterday and in the morning session, Nicolo Bulega had been in the 28s. When all was said and done at the end of the two days the aruba.it Ducati rider was still the only one to have recorded 28s. The best of which was a 1m28.680 as the two-hour morning session came to a close just after 1100. Half-a-second clear is some sort of statement by the 25-year-old Italian.

Andrea Iannone had found another tenth since yesterday to again go second quickest this morning, but his 1m29.162 was still half-a-second off Bulega’s benchmark.

Danilo Petrucci found half-a-second this morning to almost level-peg with Iannone, both recording 1m29.1s.  Both Iannone and Petrucci have shown good pace throughout.

Alvaro Bautista will not be happy to end the test eight-tenths slower than his young team-mate.

Andrea Locatelli has chipped away across the two days to get the Factory Yamaha and himself up to speed.  The Italian finished narrowly ahead of the Bimota pairing, the KB998 rider making an encouraging start with the new-look squad.

Xavi Vierge top Honda on 1m29.812. Scott Redding rounded out the top ten on the Bonovo Ducati.

The morning session had experienced a red flag interruption with just over an hour remaining when Garrett Gerloff crashed at Hayshed. Fortunately, the American rider returned to the track on his spare machine, appearing unscathed after the high-speed incident. The same could not be said for his ZX-10RR. 

Tarran Mackenzie suffered a fall at Siberia shortly before the morning session concluded and took no further part in today’s proceedings.

Superbike Times

1. Bulega – Ducati 1m28.680 (FP3)
2. Iannone – Ducati 1m29.162 (FP3)
3. Petrucci – Ducati 1m29.179 (FP3)
4. Razgatlioglu – BMW 1m29.247 (FP4)
5. Bautista – Ducati 1m29.477 (FP3)
6. Locatelli – Yamaha 1m29.493 (FP3)
7. Lowes A – Bimota 1m29.534 (FP3)
8. Bassani – Bimota 1m29.627 (FP3)
9. Vierge – Honda 1m29.812 (FP3)
10. Redding – Ducati 1m29.862 (FP3)
11. Lowes S – Ducati 1m29.,873 (FP3)
12. Van der Mark – BMW 1m29.948 (FP3)
13. Vickers – Ducati 1m29.l982 (FP2)
14. Gerloff – Kawasaki 1m30.048 (FP2)
15. Montella – Ducati 1m30.143 (FP3)
16. Gardner – Yamaha 1m30.223 (FP2)
17. Aegerter – Yamaha 1m30.461 (FP4)
18. Nagashima – Honda 1m30.611 (FP3)
19. Rabat – Yamaha 1m30.638 (FP3)
20. Lecuona – Honda 1m30.642 (FP3)
21. Rea – Yamaha 1m30.885 (FP1)
22. Sofuoglu – Yamaha 1m31.091 (FP3)
23. Mackenzie – Honda 1m31.130 (FP3)

2025 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship Calendar