World Superbike newcomer BMW Motorrad Italia Team, with James Toseland and Ayrton Badovini got their first ride in a private two day test at Portimao, on their official BMW S1000RR’s which the Italian team only finished building last week.
The team used BMW’s test bikes at the previous tests at Portimao earlier this month.
The first day of testing was only a taste, as the usual bad weather once again hampered, at least in the morning session that the riders had to sit out, while in the afternoon session on a drying track, both riders got in about 20 laps, each trying to find a basic set-up.
Today’s session was concentrated on weight distribution and suspension settings and electronic mapping and the team is now headed back to Italy to study the data gathered and will return to Portimao in January, while the official BMW team will be at Eastern Creek, Australia for more testing and hoping for better weather than has been in Europe of late.