Checa leaves Motorland Aragon on a high
The Spaniard, who now leaves for Estoril, ended the day with a time of 1 minute 58.3 seconds, a full second faster than second-placed Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare) and followed by Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia), who was one-tenth away.
All the other riders at the test remained above the two minute mark, starting with Noriyuki Haga (Aprilia Pata Racing), on his second outing on the Italian V4 machine with a time of 2'00.3". A fraction away from the Japanese rider were Leon Camier (Aprilia Alitalia) and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki).
Katsuaki Fujiwara (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Troy Corser (BMW) both set a time of 2'00.6", together with the impressive Italian youngster Lorenzo Baroni (Althea Racing Ducati), the real surprise of the test so far.
Leon Haslam, again running a 2010-spec BMW S 1000RR, concentrated on getting familiar with his new machine, and remained above the 2'01 mark.
Testing at Motorland Aragon continues tomorrow and Friday.
Unofficial day 1 times: 1. Checa (Ducati) 1'58.3; 2. Fabrizio (Suzuki) 1'59.3; 3. Biaggi (Aprilia) 1'59.4; 4. Haga (Aprilia) 2'00.3; 5. Camier (Aprilia), Sykes (Kawasaki) 2'00.4; 7. Corser (BMW), Fuijwara (Kawasaki), Baroni (Ducati) 2'00.6; 10. Haslam (BMW) 2'01.0.
