Much More Than Meets the Eye

I’M JUST A FEW LAPS INTO MY SECOND SESSION AT JEREZ aboard the Panigale V2 and already Ducati’s smaller super-sports bike is in its element. It rips round the Spanish circuit feeling well sorted, entertainingly quick, and, most of all, supremely controllable. It’s the sort of bike that flatters its rider and makes relearning a track — or riding an unfamiliar road, for that matter — rewardingly easy.

The sharply styled red V2 looks very like its big brother,with its flared nostrils, bright red paintwork, and a stubby silencer tucked in neatly on its right side. But if I were riding the Panigale V4 or, for that matter, that bike’s 1299 Panigale predecessor, I’d be experiencing very different sensations — battling G-forces and trying to prevent a wild beast from tearing the bars from my hands.

Aboard the Panigale V2 it’s all much more civilized; almost relaxed, if circulating