bruised , to continue testing for the afternoon session . Jonathan Rea wasn ’ t so lucky ; a crash in the first session in Turn 2 resulted in fractured bones in his foot that will exclude him , at the very least , from Rounds One and Two . And Gerloff was exceedingly lucky to escape injury after a scary fast exit at Turn 8 that broke his bike in half . At the end of testing , Ducati , and in particular Bulega , looked strong especially on corner exit where the V4R seems to have that bit more drive than other bikes . Bautista admitted to some confidence issues with the 2025 bike , possibly influenced by his ‘ without warning ’ highside in the wet at Portimao but whatever the issues , he was adapting , just not quite on the pace of his teammate . Outside of the factory team , the independent Ducati riders would clearly be a force to be reckoned with . Petrucci and Iannone both performed strongly and Redding , back on a Ducati , looking a lot more comfortable than he ’ d been in recent years on the BMW . Montella was strong in the wet but not quite on the pace with the rest of the Ducati cohort in the dry . Outside of the Ducati camp , Razgatlioglu , was , as you ’ d expect , the strongest but the team has lost the super-concessions that they had in 2024 which means they ’ re much more limited with what they can do with the chassis this year and that was immediately a source of concern for the current champion as the bike was harder to ride in almost every respect . Lowes and Bassani were both impressed with the Bimota and said their
starting position this season was roughly on par with where they were on the KRT bikes at the end of last year which is no mean achievement given how different the Bimota is to the base ZX10RR . Gerloff ’ s switch from BMW to Kawasaki seems to have created few issues for the Texan with him showing real pace in the dry at Portimao .
ROUND ONE - PHILLIP ISLAND Phillip Island is a fast circuit with unpredictable weather and equally unpredictable wildlife . Mercifully neither the weather nor the wildlife played much of a part this time . The geese stayed off the track , the rain and wind kept its distance , although more than 35 ° C on Saturday was brutal . Mid-race wheel swaps have been part of the fulllength WorldSBK races at Phillip Island in recent years , a consequence of concerns that the Pirelli tyres would be unable to go the full distance without risking catastrophic tyre failure . This situation was again in play for the 2025 round . There ’ s no question that this distracts from the racing as , during the tyre change window , it ’ s hard to keep track of who ’ s actually leading the race with some riders having already executed the change and others having not . There is a mandatory minimum time to be spent in pit-lane to level the playing field and to try and limit the chances of the race outcome being affected by the wheel change , with heavy time penalties if a rider leaves pit-lane too soon .
Bautista ’ s routine before he goes out in any session , and inside his garage ( right ).
36 KIWI RIDER