Nicolo Bulega fastest as WorldSBK testing ends at Phillip Island

Nicolo Bulega will go into this weekend’s Australian WorldSBK season opener having been fastest in all four track sessions at the Phillip Island test.

Unbeaten in both Monday sessions, Ducati's reigning title runner-up improved his best lap to 1m 28.680s on Tuesday morning.

Rain then arrived, creating a damp track for the final WorldSBK outing before a frantic final 20-minutes on slicks.

Bulega only appeared for the last five minutes but continued his supremacy by snatching the top spot from reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu with a 1m 29.133s on his last lap.

The Italian’s perfect form puts him as the man to beat heading into the race weekend, finishing the test a substantial 0.482s clear of Go Eleven Ducati’s Andrea Iannone on combined times.

Barni’s Danilo Petrucci also improved on the morning of day two to complete an all-Panigale top three, half-a-second behind Bulega.

BMW’s Razgatlioglu recovered from the shock of an early highside to claim third on Monday and was again the top non-Ducati on day two, when he set his best time in the damp last session.

Razgatlioglu had been losing out on top speed (11th on the charts, 7.7km/h slower Bulega), contributing to him being ranked just eighth through Sector 1 this morning.

By contrast, the last half of the lap was Bulega’s best, while team-mate Alvaro Bautista set the Sector 1 pace on his way to fifth on the combined timesheets.

Six-time world champion Jonathan Rea was absent on Tuesday and will miss the opening race weekend after suffering fractures to his left foot in a day one accident.

Rea’s team-mate Andrea Locatelli was the leading Yamaha in sixth (+0.813s), followed by the Bimotas of Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani. Honda’s Xavi Vierge (+1.132s) and MGM Bonovo rider Scott Redding (1.182s) completed the top ten.

Tuesday morning saw red flags after accidents for Garrett Gerloff (Turn 8) and later Tarran Mackenzie (Turn 6), with both escaping serious injury.

Rookie Ryan Vickers, who impressed with eighth on Monday, was the other rider to crash (Turn 4) this morning.

Dominique Aegerter (17th) was the only rider other than Razgatlioglu to lap quicker in the afternoon than the morning.

Free practice for the Australian WorldSBK round starts on Friday morning.

This weekend’s races will again feature mandatory pit stops due to concerns over tyre endurance, although the test suggests such fears were unfounded.

Weather forecasts currently predict dry weather on Friday and Saturday, but a 50% chance of rain on Sunday.