Jerez test, Tuesday: Kawasaki ahead of Yamaha / Superbike World Championship

The Superbike test at Jerez on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week is the last one this year. While Honda and BMW are absent, Bimota, Kawasaki and Yamaha are present with their factory teams as well as the Ducati Marc VDS customer team. With heavy cloud cover, it remained dry on the first day of testing and after a cold morning it became a pleasant 18 degrees Celsius in the afternoon.

Kawasaki newcomer Garrett Gerloff, who tested the ZX-10RR for the first time right after the end of the season, set the fastest time. In the 2025 model, the Texan ran a maximum time of 1:38.861 minutes. For comparison: the pole and lap record this year was set by Vice World Champion Nicolò Bulega (Ducati) with 1:37.596 and 1:38.528.

Yamaha skipped the first test of the winter and is in Jerez with factory pilots Jonathan Rea and Andrea Locatelli. In 1:39.429 minutes, the record world champion lost 0.6 seconds to Gerloff, but was again 0.2 seconds faster than his teammate. Rea works in Jerez for the first time with Oriol Pallares as chief of staff.

For Sam Lowes, Jerez was about to rebuild confidence in the Ducati V4R after a crash-filled season. The Briton finished fourth, 0.748 seconds back.

Bimota had test driver Florian Marino do ground work on day one, and on Wednesday Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani entered the new KB998. As expected, the Frenchman set the slowest time in the Superbike category.

For the Supersport pilots out there, from a German-speaking perspective, Marcel Schrötter’s debut on the V2 Ducati from Wepol Racing was the most impressive. After two years with MV Agusta, the Bavarian first had to get used to the motorcycle and his time of 1:44.757 minutes on the first day of Schrötter was 1.5 seconds away from the fastest times.

Also new to Ducati is Valentin Debise, who is testing Renzi Corsi in Jerez. The Frenchman is one of the best drivers available last season and has yet to officially sign a 2025 contract. With 1:43.765 minutes, the veteran set the fastest supersport time. To evaluate: The lap record comes from 2023 by Nicolò Bulega (Ducati) at 1:41.875 minutes.