News

After the day 1 washout, the sun finally reappeared on the second and final day of pre-race testing at the MotorLand Aragon circuit in Spain, allowing the numerous World Superbike teams to go about their business as normal in 30° temperatures and with ideal track conditions.

The Spanish Round, which takes place next week, marks the mid-season turning-point in the championship, and given the difficult conditions encountered there last year, many teams have selected the circuit near Alcaniz as their official test track.

Aprilia Racing Team had both their riders, Max Biaggi and Eugene Laverty, on track together with Alex Hoffman of the test team. The championship leader focused on comparative set-up work and did a total of 90 laps on race tyres, setting quickest overall time in 1 minute 58.8 seconds, while his team-mate was six tenths slower on 1'59.4. Chaz Davies also provided vital support for Aprilia on his ParkinGO MTC version.

BMW Motorrad Motorsport's Leon Haslam used a qualifying tyre but his times were not communicated, and neither were those of Marco Melandri. The British rider had a small crash in the morning while trying to avoid one of the Supersport machines that were also on track at the same time. Tester Steve Martin joined the German squad for the occasion, and a total of 287 laps were covered by all three riders, whose work mainly focused on improving the chassis, the electronics package and braking systems.

BMW's Italian ‘cousins' also covered a large number of laps, with Ayrton Badovini setting his best time in 1'58.7 seconds on a qualifying tyre, while Michel Fabrizio lapped in 1'59.8 on a race tyre.

Kawasaki Racing Team were also present with Tom Sykes and Loris Baz at Provec Racing's ‘home' track, both riders working hard to improve the feeling of their ZX-10R at this tricky circuit, Sykes covering a distance of four full races in his 81 laps.

John Hopkins, who between one injury and another was actually taking part in his first ‘real' test of the season, and Leon Camier (photo) also made considerable progress with their GSX-1000R for the FIXI Crescent Suzuki squad.

The Kawasaki Intermoto Step team of Fabien Foret and Romain Lanusse, together with Imre Toth and Balazs Nemeth (Racing Team Toth Honda) were the Supersport representatives, together with Lorenzo Baroni (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) and Jeremy Guarnoni (Kawasaki MRS Racing) from Superstock 1000.