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Ducati warming up for Italian return with one-day Imola test

Tuesday, 23 April 2019 10:17 GMT

Championship leader Álvaro Bautista will make his debut around the Italian track this week

The action does not stop between rounds in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship! Teams and riders alike are spending the weeks before the upcoming Pirelli Italian Round planning strategies and fine-tuning their machines for the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola, one of the most demanding circuits on the calendar.

One team with a clearly defined plan for Round Five is the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team, who will be back on the tarmac this Wednesday, 24th April, at the iconic Italian venue. Álvaro Bautista and Chaz Davies will both take to the track for a single day of testing at Imola and will continue to push the limits of the Panigale V4 R.

Imola is one of four tracks that the championship leader has never raced at, along with Portimao, Magny-Cours and San Juan Villicum. While Bautista has had the chance to test around Portimao, these will in fact be his first laps of the Italian circuit – quite the opposite of his Welsh teammate, who has regularly found success around the 4.9km track.

This one-day test arrives just days after the Borgo Panigale squad celebrated its 350th race win World Superbike, a record achieved with Bautista’s Race 2 win at MotorLand Aragon (and a number which has since risen to 352).

Tune in to worldsbk.com for regular updates between rounds and catch up on the season so far thanks to WorldSBK VideoPass!