The conclusion of the first Official Test day for the FIM World Supersport Championship saw an Italian 1-2, but the young Australian rider Oli Bayliss [D34G Racing] found himself hot in the mix in third. Nicolo Bulega [Aruba.It Racing WorldSSP Team] led the way in both FP1 and FP2 sessions, posting his fastest time in the closing minutes of FP2 with a 1:33.527.
While it was looking that Bulega would not improve his FP1 time in the second session, a late session time attack after a red flag stoppage saw Bulega improve by a marginal 0.037s. Stefano Manzi [Ten Kate Racing Yamaha] also made big improvements in the final ten minutes of FP2 to find himself second in FP2 and combined times, along with Bayliss who went into time attack mode in his final stint of the day.
The only rider to challenge Bulega was Manzi, who jump up to the top of the standings for half a lap but was soon relegated back to second after Bulega set his fastest time of the day. Both Italians were the only riders on Day 1 who managed to dip into the 1:33 time bracket.
Oli Bayliss showed clear signs of settling in well with the D34G Racing team and the Panigale V2, finding himself at the pointy end of the timesheets in closing few laps to also see out third place in the Day 1 combined times. Bayliss put in a strong time early in the FP2 session to place him in fourth early on. With less than 10 minutes to go, the Aussie on home soil put in a fast pace which found himself jumping to third once the chequered flag came out, posting his fastest time of 1:34.103.
Oli Bayliss charging to third on the conclusion of Day 1 of the Official Test. Photo Credit: Russell Colvin
A crash early on in FP1 for Frederico Caricasulo [Althea Racing Team] didn’t seem to effect the Italian who finished FP2 in fourth, and leading the way for Kawasaki was Can Oncu [Kawasaki Puccetti Racing] who rounded out the top 5 places.
The top six from Day 1 of the Official Test, full results here:
1 Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) 1’33.527s
2. Stefano Manzi (Dynavolt Triumph) +0.216s
3. Oli Bayliss (Barni Spark Racing Team) +0.576
4. Federico Caricasulo (Althea Racing Team) +0.715s
5. Can Oncu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) +0.758s
6. Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) +0.818s
