Kawasaki Puccetti Racing has concluded the official test sessions that precede the opening round of the 2022 Superbike World Championship at Motorland Aragón in Spain,
In the previous winter tests, Lucas Mahias demonstrated that he is back to full fitness following the incident that brought his 2021 season to a premature end. Yesterday, the Frenchman worked with his team to find a good set-up for his Ninja ZX-10RR, which will mount Öhlins suspension this season. With a time of 1’51’151, Lucas rounded out day one in fourteenth place.
Like yesterday, today brought sun but very low temperatures. By the end of the three test sessions (which included a crash in the final phase), Mahias had set a best time of 1’51”038. A positive step in the right direction but not enough, due to some technical problems that the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing technical staff is working to resolve ahead of the opening WorldSBK round, which will get underway at the same Motorland Aragón track on Friday.
The full weekend schedule is available at this link:
Motorland Aragón – Alcaniz – Spain
Superbike World Championship – Combined test classification – 1) Rea (Kawasaki) – 2) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 3) Bautista (Ducati) – 4) Gerloff (Yamaha) – 5) Baz (BMW) ……………18) Mahias (Kawasaki)
Manuel Puccetti – Team Principal: “Overall, the test has been positive. In Superbike, we had a few technical issues and are working to resolve them. This is what testing is for; it’s best for the problems to come out now in practice rather than over the race weekend. Lucas was fast yesterday and improved today, if only by a little. In Supersport, we did an excellent job and are pleased. Oncu was consistently in the top three and showed he has great pace. And it’s good news from Montella too; he improved constantly to finish sixth overall. We’re ready to play a starring role this season.”
Lucas Mahias: “The cold definitely didn’t help, and we hope for better weather this weekend. We worked well yesterday anyway and, despite focusing on the set-up of the bike and its performance over longer distance, my lap time was quite fast. Today I thought I’d improve, but some technical problems slowed us down. My team is working to resolve them and so I feel confident ahead of the first round, in which I’ll give it my all so as to start the season in the best possible way.”
