It would appear that every single one of them recorded higher speeds than Rea's bike. So, "pretty fast." http://resources.worldsbk.com/files....pdf?version=34719452f43480c191faa1879b8c9188
Laverty and Rinaldi had slower top speeds than Rea. It’s also not an apples to apples comparison because of where people brake in relation to the timing loop.
Rea: 303.3 weekend best Laverty: 307.6 Rinaldi: 306.8 But yeah, I suppose you can make the case for Rea being an early-braking wimp.
I don't care about the top speed. Look how hard that thing accelerated between turns 1 and 3 this weekend. Rea got a better start in race 2 and still was behind Bautista into T1. Bautista is riding his ass off but if you can't see the plain advantage the Duc has it's time to take up knitting. This reminds me of 2007 MotoGP season but this time the Ducati actually handles.
I know its 2 different years @ Thailand and whatnot and qualifying isn't the race (especially since they both crashed in Race 1), but if you look at both Davies' and Laverne's qualifying times from this year on the V4R and last year they are almost the same even though each of them are on completely new bikes. Rea's Q time dropped by a 1/2 a second. Laverty: 2018 Q time on RSV4 - 1:33.119 2019 Q time on V4R - 1:33.037 Davies: 2018 Q time on 1199 - 1:33.148 2019 Q time on V4R - 1:33.196 Rea: 2018 - 1:32.814 2019 - 1:32.341 Just for shits and gigs Bautista: 2018 Q time on GP17 Duc - 1:30.976 2019 Q time on V4R - 1:31.912
who cares about top speed or points standings. we can measure the championship in seconds. bautista is winning the championship by 48.666 seconds. (gap to 2nd place)
I kept thinking Bautista was going to tuck the front. He backs that thing in all the way to the apex then front end looks like it twitches a bit when starts to roll on the throttle. Pretty impressive to watch.
It's not that he's an early braking wimp. Every time they post trap speeds for MotoGp, they always point out that fact that speeds will vary based on your braking markers vs the timing loop. Ducati built a good bike and they have a good rider on it. They don't even have an extra 200cc of displacement like in the past for people to whine about.
I'm Team Green and all that, but KRT is getting it handed to them right now. But this seems to happen every few years. A former good motogp racer comes to WSBK and kicks a$$. Biaggi did it a few years ago, and now Bautista. Actually you know what, motogp racer + eyebrow = WSBK champ