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Sun soared down on Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli for a two day test, which saw many MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship teams take part, including title fighters Aruba.it Racing – Ducati. With a lot of work to do and elements to test before the factory hopes to impress their home fans for the second time of the season, the team-mates returned with varied reviews of how much progress was made.

British rider Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), who secured the double victory around the Imola circuit in May was happy with how his two days went and now looks ahead to using some updates in action. With just over two weeks before WorldSBK are back on track for round seven at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, Davies’ developments with his base setting stands him in good ground ahead of the Rimini round.

 “It was a pretty good test,” explains a satisfied Davies. “We got through a detailed program of lists to try. Even without major upgrades, we had some small but important things to try. We focused on chassis balance, riding many laps. Our consistency and overall pace on race tyres was good, I slipped off on the qualifying tyre in the last corner but everything is OK. The weather conditions were really hot, with about 50 degrees on the tarmac, and it was important to lay down a good base since the weather should be similar during the race weekend. We just need to put a few things together from the data collected in the last couple of tests. I’m looking forward to race in front the Italian fans again.”

 Unfortunately for his Italian team-mate Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), he felt his two day test wasn’t as successful and had hoped to make some stronger improvements. However he will now have some different set-ups to work from around the Misano Circuit, where he will hope to secure Italy’s 100^th WorldSBK race win in front of his home fans.

Melandri explained his difficult test: “We can only be partially happy, I expected something more from these tests. We tried several setup configurations to improve the stability of the rear under acceleration while upshifting, and things have improved to this end. However, we’re still struggling under braking to get the bike to stop and turn. I don’t have the necessary confidence to push as hard as I’d like with the front yet. We found something interesting in the final hours, but we couldn’t explore that setup further because we ran out of time. We’ll try to restart from there during FP1 at Misano. I’m confident we’ll soon be able to make strides.”

WorldSBK action returns for the Pirelli Riviera Di Rimini Round from 16^th – 18^th June, as riders take to the iconic circuit in front of the passionate Italian fans. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) took the double last season, but can the Italian’s stop him?