Biaggi and Melandri close on Checa, Haslam at risk for race

Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing) and Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad) moved closer to Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) in today's second session of official testing at Phillip Island.

In the warmer afternoon track conditions the world champion was unable to improve on his best time of 1'31"947 set in the morning. Biaggi however improved by a fraction with a sequence of fast laps towards the end, all in the low 1.32s. Melandri also made good progress, ending up with a time of 1'32.232, a full second better than the time he set in last week's private test.

Leon Haslam, who crashed in the morning, did not take part in the afternoon run. Checks carried out in hospital diagnosed a fractured tibia in his right leg and the BMW man is considering having a screw put in to race in a few day's time.

In the overall timesheets, Haslam was sandwiched by two more Brits, Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike) in fourth and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) in sixth.

Superbike Day 1 - overall
1 7 Checa C. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 1'31.947
2 3 Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'32.132
3 33 Melandri M. (ITA) BMW S1000 RR 1'32.232
4 65 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1'32.379
5 91 Haslam L. (GBR) BMW S1000 RR 1'32.397
6 66 Sykes T. (GBR) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'32.465
7 50 Guintoli S. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 1'32.768
8 59 Canepa N. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1'32.836
9 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1'32.848
10 17 Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'33.005
11 2 Camier L. (GBR) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'33.104
12 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) BMW S1000 RR 1'33.141
13 121 Berger M. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 1'33.246
14 34 Giugliano D. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1'33.366
15 4 Aoyama H. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1'33.479
16 87 Zanetti L. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1'33.566
17 67 Staring B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'33.704
18 44 Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'33.812
19 86 Badovini A. (ITA) BMW S1000 RR 1'34.234
20 19 Davies C. (GBR) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'34.303
21 35 De Rosa R. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1'34.400
22 25 Brookes J. (AUS) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'34.667
23 18 Aitchison M. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1'35.223