Another round of three days of Superbike private testing kicked off today at Portimao, with teams BMW Italia SBK, Apilia Alitalia Racing, ParkinGO-Aprilia and Crescent Suzuki and the factory BMW Motorrad Motorsport team who arrived from Spain after testing for three days at Jerez.
Luckily the weather was perfect and BMW’s Leon Haslam was the fastest rider of the day posting an unofficial best time of 1.
43.
6 with team mate Marco Melandri just a tenth adrift despite a crash earlier in the day.
Satellite BMW Italia’s Ayrton Badovini who was riding the 2012 S100RR with a modified swingarm and gas tank for the first timewas close behind the factory riders while new team mate Michel Fabrizio was seventh and a little less than a second off pace.
Following the BMW’s were three Aprilias, Max Biaggi in fourth and has a new crew chief Enrico Folegnani who his replacing the legendary Giovanni Sandi, who will probably follow his son Federico in MotoGP with CRT team Grillini BMW or more likely one of Aprilia CRT teams.
Eugene Laverty posted the same time as the former WSBK champion while 2011 Supersport champion Chaz Davies on his second with the privateer ParkingGO Aprilia was right behind them.
Davies also suffered a small but harmless crash.
Bringing up the rear and getting his first taste of the Crescent Suzuki was Leon Camier.
2011 British Supersport 2011 champion Alistair Seeley is doing testing duties in lieu of John Hopkins who is still recovering from his recent surgery.
Unofficial lap times day 1 Portimao:Leon Haslam (BMW) : 1′43.
6Marco Melandri (BMW) : 1′43.
7Ayrton Badovini (BMW Italia) : 1′43.
8Max Biaggi (Aprilia) : 1′43.
9Eugene Laverty (Aprilia) : 1′43.
9Chaz Davies (Aprilia ParkinGo) : 1′44.
0Michel Fabrizio (BMW Italia) : 1′44.
5Leon Camier (Crescent Suzuki) : 1′44.
8Alastair Seeley (Crescent Suzuki) : 1′46.
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