News

Rain was the disturbing factor on today's first day of private Superbike team testing at the Portimao circuit in Portugal. While Yamaha and Aprilia are starting to test at Phillip Island in Australia, Honda Ten Kate (Jonathan Rea and Ruben Xaus), Suzuki Alstare (Michel Fabrizio), BMW Motorrad (Leon Haslam and Troy Corser), BMW Italia (James Toseland) and Aprilia Pata (Noriyuki Haga) were all hoping to put in some dry weather testing in southern Europe over the next couple of days.

But today's session was somewhat of a washout as the riders could only manage to piece together three or four laps before being interrupted by showers, which did not allow the track to dry out.

Today's action however did see Ruben Xaus get to grips with his Ten Kate Honda for the first time since signing for the Dutch team, while James Toseland had an opportunity to ride the BMW test-team bike while his BMW Italia machine is being prepared (Images: Kel Edge Photography).

The laps times were all around the high 1.57"/ 1.58" mark, with Honda's Jonathan Rea clocking the best of the day ahead of Haslam and Corser.

Tomorrow hopefully conditions will improve for the second and final day of testing.