GRT Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff topped the timesheets on the opening day of WorldSBK winter testing at Jerez, opening a near four-tenth gap over six-time world champion Jonathan Rea.

Texan Gerloff sported a new aerodynamic fairing today on his R1Mwhile Rea is thought to have many new parts under the bonnet of his ZX-10RR.

Rea set a best time of 1’39.995 compared to the American’s 1’39.562. Toprak Razgatlioglu was third on a 1’40.055.

Gerloff was just over a second slower than the only MotoGP bike at these tests, ridden by Stefan Bradl. The German rider was the fastest of all on day one, with a 1'38.562 on an HRC test team Honda.

Gerloff’s latest step forward comes shortly after he stood in for none other than MotoGP megastar Valentino Rossi for a day at Valencia, having already scored three podiums in his 2020 WorldSBK rookie season.

The first official Yamaha WorldSBK bike was third today, ridden by Toprak Razgatlioglu, and the second official Kawasaki was taken into fourth place by Alex Lowes. Both KRT riders hit some trouble that halted their progress in the morning but got going again to finish nearer the top than the bottom of the timesheets.

Leon Haslam, robbed of track time on the latest Fireblade in its first year of real race action, stayed out to the end of the day on his HRC Honda and ended up fifth fastest. Like his team-mate Haslam, Bautista tried out many items in the back-to-back fashion that the intense racing calendar would not allow in the race season. He was sixth.

Behind the more experienced WorldSBK riders, three WorldSBK rookies tried out against their 2021 peer group. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha) was seventh best Superbiker – almost exactly one second from Gerloff’s leading non-MotoGP time - with Lucas Mahias (Puccetti Kawasaki) eighth and then Isaac Vinales ninth.

New GRT Yamaha rider for 2021, Kohta Nozane (GRT) and Loris Cresson (Outdo TPR Kawasaki) completed the 11 WorldSBK riders on track today – although Cresson had a fast crash entering T1.

Jerez WorldSBK test day one times

Pos # Class Name Country Laps Time

1 31 sbk Garrett GERLOFF us 63 1:39.571
2 1 sbk Jonathan REA gb 66 1:39.955
3 54 sbk Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU tr 84 1:40.055
4 22 sbk Alex LOWES gb 71 1:40.116
5 91 sbk Leon HASLAM gb 77 1:40.294
6 19 sbk Alvaro BAUTISTA es 72 1:40.342
7 55 sbk Andrea LOCATELLI it 72 1:40.579
8 44 sbk Lucas MAHIAS fr 66 1:40.852
9 32 sbk Isaac VIÑALES es 74 1:41.916
10 3 sbk Kohta NOZANE jp 76 1:41.946
11 84 sbk Loris CRESSON be 72 1:44.808