MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

World Supersport opens the racing for 2025, with Yamaha replacing the R6 with a 890cc triple, the R9. Stefano Manzi is the only rider from the top three last year to be competing this year. The track is so abrasive on tyres that there is a mandated pitstop and a ten lap limit on tyres in the eighteen lap race. A minimum of 78 seconds must be taken in the pit stop, with the time cut multiplied by five as a penalty where applicable.

The first World Superbike Superpole session of the year missed Jonathan Rea, being ruled out after a crash in testing last week. Nicolo Bulega, pole position and winner here last year on his first ever Superbike race, has topped all four days of testing and all three practice sessions and was favourite for pole position.

Nicolo Bulega tops the final practice session, but Toprak Razgatlioglu finds some form to get within a quarter of a second of the Ducati rider. Three more Ducatis round out the top five.

Results:

After topping all the tests here, Bulega adds both Friday sessions to his belt, ending the day over four tenths ahead of the rest of the field, Andrea Iannone was second quickest ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu, but Razgatlioglu's second session was not as quick as those of Alvaro Bautista and Danilo Petrucci who ended the day third and fourth quickest overall.

Results:

Bo Bendsneyder started his 2025 campaign on the MV Agusta with a pole position and a crash.

Nicolo Bulega led Andrea Iannone, Alvaro Bautista and Danilo Petrucci in an all-Ducati top four, Bulega over a third of a second quicker than Iannone. Dominique Aegerter and Toprak Razgatlioglu, resplendent with the number one plate on his BMW, rounded out the top six with Alex Lowes almost a second off Bulega's best time on the new Kawasaki-powered Bimota.

With the races split in half to save the tyres, riders focussed on short ten lap runs instead of the usual twenty-lap shakedowns. 

Results:

Valentin Debise, having swapped his Yamaha for a Ducati, opens the 2025 season with the top spot in the first session of the year with Tom Booth-Amos less than a tenth of a second off his pace on a Triumph Street Triple. Bo Bendsneyder kept up the variety of machinery putting his MV Agusta in third place. Marcel Schroetter was fourth quickest on his Ducati with a brace of new Yamaha R9s rounding out the top six, with Lucas Mahias and Can Oncu aboard. 

Nicolo Bulega leaves preseason testing for the WorldSBK class very much in control. The Aruba.it Ducati rider topped both days of testing at Phillip Island with a comfortable lead over the competition, lapping consistently in the 1'29s, promising much for the race.

The switch to the WorldSSP class has been a positive move for Bo Bendsneyder. The Dutchman topped both days of testing at Phillip Island for the World Supersport riders, leading fellow Moto2 refugee Jaume Masia by over half a second. Valentin Debise was third fastest overall, ahead of Can Öncü on the Yamaha R9.

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