Jonathan Rea has taken his Kawasaki to the top of the timesheets in the final warm-up session at Phillip Island ahead of a watershed day in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, Yamaha Finance round.
Sunday’s program will see the introduction of a first-ever ‘sprint’ race in the 32-year-old production series, with the 10-lapper to be held at midday as the riders set aside their normal tyre-conservation strategies for what’s expected to be an all-out bar-banging affair.
The sprint race will be followed by the second 22-lap race at 3:00pm.
Rea was the quickest man in warm-up ahead of teammate Leon Haslam, Alex Lowes (Yamaha), Alvaro Bautista (Ducati), Sandro Cortese (Yamaha), Tom Sykes (BMW), Marco Melandri (Yamaha) and Michael van der Mark (Yamaha). Aussie Troy Herfoss (Honda) was 19th.
Bautista’s the overwhelming favourite to win today’s race after his convincing triumph over Rea in Saturday’s race one – the most comprehensive dry-race win in WorldSBK history around the 4.448km grand prix circuit.
Melandri was third in race one ahead of Lowes and van der Mark.
Also on today’s program is the 16-lap WorldSSP race at 1:15pm, featuring Aussie wildcard Tom Toparis, as well as domestic support races in Superbike, Supersport and Supersport 300.
See you Trackside at the Island for a Triple-Treat
General Admission tickets and camping passes are now available at the gate. Gates open from 8am each day.
World superbikes is FREE* for kids 15 and under, and so is your bike.
As an extra bonus at WorldSBK, all three-day ticket holders are gifted FREE paddock access.
