Ducati Panigale V2 Middle-Class Refinement

Ducati’s mid-capacity Panigale has a new name and fresh look, but the V-twin’s rider-friendly character is very much intact

- Roland Brown

Just a few laps into my second session at Jerez, and already the Panigale V2 is in its element. Ducati’s mid-capacity sports bike rips round the Spanish circuit feeling sorted, quick and most of all supremely controllable. It’s the sort of bike that flatters its rider and makes relearning a racetrack rewardingly easy.

The sharply styled red V2 looks much like its big brother the Panigale V4, thanks to its flared nostrils, bright red paintwork, single-sided swing-arm and a stubby silencer tucked in neatly on its right side. But if I were riding the V4 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 much more civilised; almost relaxed, if circulating a racetrack on a 150bhpplus superbike could ever be described that way. This 955cc V-twin might look much more like the larger capacity V4 than its predecessor the Panigale 959 did, but that is deceptive because neither the Ducati’s ethos nor its eight-valve desmo powerplant has changed. Just like the 959, the V2 is designed to be not merely fast, but rider-friendly and fun to ride, on both road and track.

The Superquadro engine does, however, benefit from the new double-layer fairing, which ducts air more efficiently from those slots at its nose. Together with new, more free-flowing fuel injectors and a redesigned exhaust, which replaces the 959’s twin-pipe system, this increases peak output by 5bhp, to 153bhp at 10,750rpm. (Claimed figures are slightly down on the 959’s because Ducati now measure torque and power in a different way.)