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After last week’s tests at the ‘Ricardo Tormo’ circuit of Valencia, Team Althea Racing was back on track this week for a two-day private test at Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain, where the riders had chance to test the Ducati Panigale R in its 2015 configuration for the first time.

The Superbike riders worked hard with their bikes; while it is a brand new bike for Nico Terol, teammate Matteo Baiocco has ridden it before in his role as test rider. Both men were immediately at ease with the Ducati Panigale R, trying out the new electronics for the first time and getting to know the bike, lapping with interesting times. The stopwatch is not vital at this stage, but lap times nevertheless proved positive and reassuring. The team, led by Genesio Bevilacqua, worked extremely well to find the right bike set-up. Several different solutions were tried, even though the poor track conditions limited to some extent the amount of work that could be completed.

Work also continued in the Superstock 1000 camp, with Luca Salvadori and Raffaele De Rosa lapping with the bike in its Stock version. During these two days the riders used cut tyres and were able to gain a lot of experience, lap after lap, testing various set-up solutions, although more track time is needed in order to improve further. Both riders are confident that they will be ready in time for next season’s opening round.

Many tests were carried out, in the search for new solutions and in order to increase the riders’ feeling with the Ducati Panigale R. The next test sessions, scheduled to take place at Portimao in January, will be extremely important.

Nicolas Terol: “I’m very pleased with these two test days, despite the fact that bad weather meant we only really had two half days. The feeling I have with the Ducati is increasing lap after lap, but to continue in this direction I need more track time. The Team and I have done a great job, identifying the right solutions and trying different things to improve grip. I’m happy and feeling positive because I know I can continue to do more, I want to improve further and now I’m impatient to do some more tests to increase feeling with my bike. I’ll be ready for the first race in Australia, where I hope not to disappoint the team or my many Spanish fans who follow me with great passion”.

Matteo Baiocco: “It went really well considering that these are the first real tests with the bike we’ll use next year. I’m very pleased because we made some good laps with the race tyres and were in line with the leading group. I’m all set on a doing a good job, and testing is very important. I’m coming from the Italian championship and so need to ‘reset’ in some ways, while also working to learn many new things. I’m sure that I’ll improve a lot from one test to the next. We’re on the right track to obtaining the best possible results; the Team that I’d heard so much about is a fantastic Team and together I feel we’ll be able to do great things.”