Baz finishes 2020 runner-up in the WSBK winter testing
No, Loris Baz’s second place in the official Phillip Island tests does not earn him any points in the WSBK 2020 championship … But the feat of our No. 76 remains extremely exciting for the opening of the championship, this weekend on the same Australian circuit ! Debrief.
Arrived last year during the season with the Yamaha Ten Kate team, Loris Baz is back in 2020 for a full season with the same team! And if the start of the first race of the 2020 Superbike World Championship will not be given until Saturday in Australia, the competition has indeed started !
After a series of private tests carried out in Europe this winter, the World Superbike riders all met in Australia this summer (!) To fine-tune their bike settings. These final official tests, yesterday and today (tonight), were won by the "Number One" of the discipline…
- MNC special file :
- World Superbike 2020 :
- World Superbike 2019 :
The five-time champion Jonathan Rea covered the 4445 meters of the grandiose Phillip Island circuit in 1’30.448. Remember that the "beginner" Alvaro Bautista on the Panigale V4R had crushed the competition last year by turning a little slower in the race (1’30.573). The absolute track record in WSBK was however signed by Rea during the 2019 Superpole (1’29.413).
Best time in the 2020 tests, Jonathan seems very satisfied with his performance and his work. He feels "fast and consistent" and has only one small criticism to make towards his Ninja ZX-10RR: the feeling of the front axle of his bike when braking can still be improved..
The No. 1 Kawasaki warns, however, that "this year the bike is performing better. I can ride it the right way here, so a big thank you to the team because we are better prepared than last year!" His fiercest opponents have been warned … Loris Baz is at the top of the list !
By turning this night in 1’30.524 at the controls of his private Yamaha – prepared by the nevertheless prestigious team Ten Kate -, our dear compatriot ranks second in these "summer" tests ahead of Sykes, Razgatlioglu, Haslam, Redding and Van der Mark on their official BMW n ° 66, Yamaha n ° 54, Honda n ° 91, Ducati n ° 45 and Yamaha n ° 60.
Baz 76 thousandths of a second from Rea !
"I’m very happy, we worked hard and tried a lot of things but from the first lap yesterday we were quick," said Loris. "Obviously the most important thing is to manage the tires throughout the race, so we focused on that".
Always extremely demanding on the tires, the Australian track also allows the most courageous riders to erase the weaknesses of their motorcycle. It seems that this is the case of our "Bazooka" which piloted a "hybrid" R1: cycle part of 2020 but engine of 2019 for the moment.
Our "cheetah high-Savoy" is counting on the new version of the CP4 (Yamaha’s "CrossPlane 4-cylinder") to improve its top speed because "this is our weak point now, as well as the start. We have managed to improve our starts but we need to be faster. Not necessarily for the lap time, but above all so as not to be left behind in the race and to be able to overtake more easily ", Loris analyzes.
"Last year, this lack of speed made me take too many risks when I wanted to overtake," recalls the No. 76 who had nevertheless entered the Top 7 twelve times in 24 races. "The Yamaha might not be the fastest machine on the grid, but I’ve seen Razgatlioglu and Van der Mark go faster than last year so it’s promising".
In 2020 for our Green Blue Giant, "the goal is to win races or at least to fight for victory very quickly. We had a good pre-season and our pace is solid but so are many others. pilots, "he observes. At the end of these last tests, in fact, the Top 10 is in the same second…
WSBK official practice at Phillip Island: the times
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