The works Yamaha team is
unchanged for 2019 with
Alex Lowes and Michael
Van der Mark on duty. The
satellite GMT94 team wears
the same Pata livery as
the works bikes and the
riders, ex- Ducati man
Marco Melandri and 2018
World Supersport champion
Sandro Cortese, have clearly
used pre-season testing to
get themselves very familiar
with their new rides.
All four riders put in strong
rides, the best being
Melandri’s third place finish
in Race 1; come the end
of the weekend, it was the
diminutive Italian who lead
the Yamaha charge on the
leader board, finishing 3rd
behind Bautista and Rea.
Lowes, Van Mark and Cortese
were right there behind him
in 4th, 5th and 7th places
respectively.
The SMR/factory backed
S1000RR BMW has a set of
left side handlebar controls
that wouldn’t look out of
place on a games console.
Apparently the green button
is NOT for Whatsapp. So now
you know.
Development time on the
BMW was very short and the
rumours were that the bikes
that took to the track at
Phillip Island were relatively
close to stock. In Race 1,
Sykes was able to stick with
Razgatlioglŭ, finishing two
tenths of a second behind
him in 7th place. That alone
is a very encouraging result.
It was a little odd not seeing
Tom Sykes in green for 2019
but it’s great to see him
finding form on the BMW
so early in the development
cycle and it’s fair to suggest
that he could pull off some
surprises as the season
progresses.