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Haslam tops first day of WSBK test on new Honda

Leon Haslam topped a wet opening day at the Jerez World Superbike pre-season test in Honda's first public outing with its all-new CBR1000RR-R, while there were no times from Jonathan Rea.

Leon Haslam, Team HRC

Leon Haslam, Team HRC

motosport.com

Testing for the 2020 WSBK campaign began back in November, though Honda's running with Haslam and Ducati exile Alvaro Bautista had taken place without the rest of the field in private outings at Aragon, Portimao and Jerez.

Despite the wet track conditions, riders took to the Jerez circuit when the session was greenlit at 11am local time.

Reigning British Superbike champion and new works Ducati signing Scott Redding set the early pace aboard his Panigale V4 with a 2m04.580s – though this was steadily improved upon as circuit conditions got marginally better across the rest of the morning and early afternoon.

Haslam's session-topping time came at around 3pm local time, when he guided the Honda to a 1m52.149s, having taken over from Ten Kate Yamaha's Loris Baz at the top of the standings.

Heavy rain late into the afternoon meant very few ventured out on track and Haslam's 1m52.149s stood unchallenged.

Factory Yamaha rider Michael van der Mark trailed Haslam by 0.031s on the timesheets, with Yamaha stablemate Garrett Gerloff completing the top three for GRT.

American star Gerloff was comfortably fastest WSBK rookie on Wednesday, with his GRT teammate Federico Caricasulo – who steps up from World Supersport this year – four tenths adrift in ninth spot.

Redding slipped to fourth after another brief run at the top of the standings, while Baz completed the top five as Ten Kate gears up for its first full season in WSBK since 2018, having only contested eight rounds last year.

Tom Sykes was top BMW runner in sixth with a 1m53.097s, while Alex Lowes was the only works Kawasaki rider to post a time on Wednesday in seventh.

World champion Rea opted against doing any mileage, though did complete some laps on Tuesday following a filming session with KRT – which will miss the upcoming Portimao test.

Rea is not expected to feature on Thursday either, but is expected to get some private running ahead of the Phillip Island test before the season opener.

Yamaha new boy Toprak Razgatlioglu caused a red flag with a crash at Turn 1 during a downpour and ended the day eighth, while Bautista was 10th, having completed 15 laps on his Honda.

Chaz Davies was another crasher on Wednesday, with the Ducati rider also coming off at Turn 1. Unharmed, he finished the day 21st ahead of Leon Camier's Barni stand-in Sandro Cortese.

HRC MotoGP test rider Stefan Bradl is also present at Jerez, putting miles on the RC213V ahead of next month's Sepang pre-season test. No times for Bradl were available.

Testing times (SBK only):

Pos.  No. Rider Bike Time  Gap 
91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam Honda 1'52.149  
60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark Yamaha 1'52.180 0.031
31 United States Garrett Gerloff Yamaha 1'52.213 0.064
45 United Kingdom Scott Redding Ducati 1'52.508 0.359
76 France Loris Baz Yamaha 1'52.660 0.511
66 United Kingdom Tom Sykes BMW 1'53.097 0.948
22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes Kawasaki 1'53.246 1.097
54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu Yamaha 1'53.494 1.345
64 Italy Federico Caricasulo Yamaha 1'53.676 1.527
10  19 Spain Alvaro Bautista Honda 1'54.824 2.675
11  38 Argentina Leandro Mercado Ducati 1'55.361 3.212
12  77 Chile Maximilian Scheib Kawasaki 1'55.884 3.735
13  50 Ireland Eugene Laverty BMW 1'56.015 3.866
14  20 France Sylvain Barrier Ducati 1'56.105 3.956
15  23 France Christophe Ponsson Aprilia 1'56.542 4.393
16  7 United Kingdom Chaz Davies Ducati 1'58.684 6.535
17  11 Germany Sandro Cortese Ducati 1'59.030 6.881
18  21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 2'04.148 11.999

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