Melandri and Baz work on at Aragon
Last week's two-day test at MotorLand Aragon was a chance for many top teams of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship to continue their preparation for the upcoming season. For different reasons, the two squads who brought the title fight up to the last round in 2013 were missing one rider each, as Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) is currently recovering after a shoulder operation he underwent two weeks ago, while reigning WSBK Champion Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) had to rush back home to the UK to be there for the birth of his and wife's baby daughter.
New signing for factory Aprilia team Marco Melandri, despite low temperatures and strong winds, was able to put in a total of 102 laps, with a best time of 1'58.0: "It has been two very interesting days even if they were complicated by the low temperatures. We worked on riding position and I was able to test an RSV4 with the same configuration Guintoli uses, gathering a lot of useful information in the process. What we need now is a day with good weather and temperatures so that we can compare material and choose which way to go. It has been a good test and I can't wait to get back on the track to try and improve my times on the fast lap".
Twenty year old Loris Baz completed more than 100 laps over two days on his Ninja ZX-10R and ended up posting a best lap of 1'57.7 on a regular SC1 race tyre, and then a 1'57.0 on a qualifying rear tyre. Working closely with his team Baz found a strong set-up at a circuit he had, by his own admission, found difficult to deal with in the past.
"The test went really good" said Loris Baz "and it was the first time I had enjoyed this track fully because it felt much easier with the bike than usual for me here. That shows the big steps we have managed to do all through the season. On race tyres even on the first day I improved the best lap I did at Motorland when we last tested here in June. We did fewer laps in the second day but managed to improve the lap times once more on race tyres, and again with the qualifying rear tyre."
Both teams will test once more before the mandatory winter break on November 25-26 at Jerez, with the Aprilia Racing Team to stay one more day on the 27th.
