The Jerez de la Frontera circuit was alive with activity on Wednesday with MotoGP, CRT, Stock 1000 and other Superbike teams joined the already present Aprilia, Kawasaki and Red Devil Roma squads.
No doubt the test times will start tongues wagging with comparisons between the highly expensive MotoGP prototypes, in this case Ducati, with its Bridgestone tires and carbon fibre brakes and the Superbike machinery with its Pirelli tires and steel brakes.
The fastest rider of the day was Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty who mounted a Superpole qualifying tire, so he was chasing a fast lap that helped him blitz the field in 1’40”186 and finish ahead of Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes who unofficially led the timesheets during the previous two days of testing (without transponders) with the same lap time as yesterday -1.
40.
400 – but it was done on race tires.
Nicky Hayden ended up third quickest and he continued work on two different chassis and a swingarm, while new Ducati team mate Andrea Dovizioso could only put in two laps as he suffered from neck problem that stopped him from continuing for the rest of the day.
The Italian is scheduled to undergo surgery next week to have a plate removed from his collarbone.
Michel Fabrizio significantly improved with his Aprilia RSV4 working on set-ups and was fourth fastest posting his best lap on race tires.
While Sylvain Guintoli concluded his three-day test session with Aprilia with a new contract in his pocket and the fifth fastest time.
New factory test rider Michele Pirro – who is still standing in for injured Ben Spies – finished the day with a best lap of 1.
41.
720 a little more than a tenth of second faster with Pramac Ducati’s rookie Andrea Iannone.
BMW Italia’s Marco Melandri and Chaz Davies decided not to use transponders and their laps times are unofficial.
Aprilia’s test rider Alex Hofmann was faster than Avintia Blusens CRT riders Hiroshi Aoyama and Hector Barbera who recorded laps in 1.
42’509 and 1.
42’900 respectively.
Carlos Checa completed 45 laps and his best time was in 1’43”089, while Ayrton Badovini debuted for the first time the Ducati Panigale and he was slower than Max Neukirchner who is still using Stock version of the 1199.
The Ducati armada and BMW Italia will continue to test at Jerez until Friday.
Jerez Test Times Wednesday:Eugene Laverty – Aprilia SBK – 1’40”186Tom Sykes – Kawasaki SBK – 1’41”0 (unofficial)Nicky Hayden – Ducati GP – 1’40”855Michel Fabrizio – Aprilia Red Devils Roma – 1’40”956Sylvain Guintoli – Aprilia SBK – 1’41”239Michele Pirro – Ducati GP – 1’41”720Marco Melandri – BMW SBK – 1’41”8 (unofficial)Andrea Iannone – Ducati GP – 1’41”834Alex Hofmann – Aprilia SBK – 1’41”103Hiroshi Aoyama – FTR Kawasaki CRT – 1’42”509Hector Barbera – FTR Kawasaki CRT – 1’42”900Carlos Checa – Ducati Alstare – 1’43”089Max Neukirchner – Ducati MR – 1’44”613Loris Baz – Kawasaki SBK – 1’42”4 (unofficial)Chaz Davies – BMW SBK – 1’43”4 (unofficial)Ayrton Badovini – Ducati Alstare – 1’45”452Niccolò Canepa – Barni Ducati – 1’46”034Eddi la Marra – Barni Ducati – 1’46”498Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati GP – 1’48”516