With Rea, Razgatlioglu and Bautista all delivering impressive performances during pre-season testing, the 2022 WorldSBK campaign, which gets underway this weekend i𒁃n Aragon, promises to be an intense battle. 

After topping the two-⛎day Catalunya test, reigning world champion Razgatlioglu had to play second best at MotorLand Aragon as Rea proved unstoppable. 

• Official: Leon Haslam to make WorldSBK return, unveil💯s 2022 BSB colours 
• Rea unleashes 💃devastating pace to top final pre-season WorldSBK test at Aragon 
• Skinnꦛer fastest as Mackenzie suffers new injury blow, round one in doubt?

Razgatlioglu has never won at the Spanish circuit, and although we’ve never seen a better version of the Yamaha rider, could that be advan♎tageous to Rea, who himself has 8 race wins at Aragon. 

Speaking after the final pre-season test, Rea feels he’s as ready 'as I’ll ever be' ahead of a season in which he’s ai🎃ming to win an unprecedented seventh World Superbike title.  

Rea said: "Step-by-step we have built the package at this test. The afternoon sessions were much bette💜r than the first morning. We got meaningful work done and we confirmed our bike𓄧 set-up. 

"On thﷺe last runs I was really able to clarify the package we will start the race weekend with. We also ticked a lot of boxes with tyres. 

"We u🎐sed the SCQ qualifying tyre, which is new for us. We had to understand it꧙ before we use it in Superpole qualifying on Saturday. 

"I enjoyed riding the bike; I had a lot of fun and g🌌ot a 🎃lot of feedback. When that happens we are able to go quite fast. 

"I am as ready as I'll ever be to start racing. You can always do more, but ❀you have to start somewhere and if we were to go racing tomorrow I am happy enough to start."

Bautista ready to challenge for WorldSBK title?

Expect Rea and Razgatlioglu to be at the front throughout this weekend, howev🌠er, another name to watch out for is Bautista. 

The former MotoGP rider has looked very impressive since retu🅰rning to Ducati, even though crashes have hampered his testing ൩program at times. 

A three-time race winner around the Teruel-based circuit, Bautista has experience of getting the better of Rea, something that should he repeat it this weekend would go a long way to proving his status as a title fav💮ourite in 2022. 

Whether it’s race pace of particularly one lap performance, the Spaniard has had knack for being at the front since his return, which will be a very pleasant sight for Ducati after the Bologna-based manufacturer re-signed Bautista for one reason only⛦, to win their first title since 2011.  

Redding and BMW are not yet ready.

One rider who is unlikely to be a contender, at least for the first few 💖rounds, is Scott Redding. 

The new BMW rider once again struggled during the Aragon test, while confirming ‘solutions’ need to beꦫ found in order for the German manufacturer to move forward.

"Because of the cold track conditions it was hard to do the work really consistently, but we were working on a few things. One of them was rear grip; we are still struggling in that area at the 🍌moment,"&nbsꦡp;added Redding. 

"In the end it was another circuit we have come to, it was a bit different, so we had to play a ꦐlot with the bike set-up to get more of a feeling but we are still not achieving the feeling that we want to have so we still have some more work to do. 

"Now 🥀I am looking forward to the first race on the BMW. It’s going to be hard, for sure, but this is where we can collect more race data for me to ride with the otherﷺ guys and understand the riding style a little bit more. 

"The expectation? We need to see. At the moment we are not quite where we want to be but we ha𝓰ve a couple of days to come with some more solutions and then w🐈e’ll try again and see if we can improve."