Alvaro Bautista before the rain. On the first of two test days at Misano, the bad weather that was forecast did eventually impact on the teams’ work, but only during the afternoon, which meant that riders were nevertheless able to set some fast times. And the Spanish Ducati rider knows all about this, having shattered the previous track record.

A 1’33”035 for Alvaro saw him place half a second ahead of his closest rival, or rather Toprak Razgatlioglu, the Turk able to get between the two Aruba men, given that Michael Rinaldi closed in third place, more than six tenths from the front. It was fourth for Xavi Vierge, more than a second from the front and hard at work testing some new swingarms.

Gerloff the first BMW, Bulega better than a SBK

Garrett Gerloff had a good day, placing fifth as the best BMW rider, followed by Axel Bassani and Tom Sykes, more than a little surprising aboard the M1000RR. The Englishman placed ahead of Iker Lecuona, team-mate Scott Redding and Philipp Oettl, who rounded out the top ten more than second and a half from Bautista.

Just outside the top ten was Lorenzo Baldassarri, who’s definitely improving with respect to the opening rounds and was able to close ahead of fellow Yamaha riders Andrea Locatelli, Dominique Aegerter and Remy Gardner. Also out on track was Nicolò Bulega, riding the team Aruba Panigale V2. He finished the day in penultimate position, ahead of Tarran Mackenzie, who is riding the MIE team’s CBR in place of Granado and Syahrin.

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