Ten World Superbike teams and eighteen riders are taking part in a three day private at Phillip Island ahead of the the official test that takes place February 20th-21st, before the season opener that opens on February 26th in Australia.
Not taking part in this test are Honda’s Jonathan Rea and Hiroshi Aoyama, Red Devil Ducati’s Niccolo Canepa, ParkinGO Aprilia’s Chaz Davies, Grillini BMW’s Mark Aitchison and Pro Ride Honda’s Raffaele de Rosa, while wild-card David Johnson on the Rossair AEP BMW is present.
The first day, that saw cloudy weather with intermittent sunshine was characterized by a few falls, including Crescent Fixi Suzuki rider John Hopkins who had a speed crash at the Southern Loop and broke a bone in his right hand.
The American rider is now returning to the States for further for a further check-up and his partecipation in the opening round is now seriously in doubt.
Reigning Superstock 1000 FIM Cup champion Davide Giugliano who switched to Superbikes with Althea Racing also crashed as did Jakub Smrz and a contact between Aprilia’s Max Biaggi and Effenbert Liberty’s Maxime Berger sent the Aprilia rider down.
Since there are no official lap times, we’re more or less relying on the unofficial ones recorded by the teams so there will probably be several discrepancies.
Some say that reigning World Superbike champion Carlos Checa (the Ducati 1198 now weighs more following the new rules) and Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes posted identical lap times of 1.
33.
0, who were followed by Eugene Laverty on the Aprilia who was three tenths of a second adrift, but just tweeted that he actually posted a 1′33″4″Marco Melandri on the BMW S1000RR was fourth, ahead of Max Biaggi and BMW team mate Leon Haslam.
Effenbert Liberty Ducati duo Jakub Smrz and Sylvain Guintoli were 7th and 8th respectively while new team mate Maxime Berger finished in 11th.
Joan Lascroz was 9th on the other factory Kawasaki.
Ayrton Badovini and Michel Fabrizio for BMW Italia GoldBet were 10th and 12th.
Unofficial lap times day 1:1 Tom Sykes (GB) Kawasaki 1:33,01 Carlos Checa (E) Althea Ducati 1:33,03 Eugene Laverty (IRL) Aprilia 1:33,34 Marco Melandri (I) BMW 1:33,45 Max Biaggi (I) Aprilia 1:33,75 Leon Haslam (GB) BMW 1:33,77 Jakub Smrz (CZ) Liberty Effenbert Ducati 1:34,08 Sylvain Guintoli Effenbert Liberty Ducati 1:34,19 Joan Lascorz (E) Kawasaki 1:34,110 Ayrton Badovini (I) BMW Italia GoldBet 1:34,111 Maxime Berger Effenbert Liberty Ducati 1:34,312 Michel Fabrizio (I) BMW Italia GoldBet 1:34,413 Leon Camier (GB) Crescent Fixi Suzuki 1:34,514 David Salom (E) Pedercini Kawasaki 1:34,915 David Johnson (AUS) Rossair AEP BMW 1:35,716 Davide Giugliano (I) Althea Ducati 1:35,817 Lorenzo Zanetti (I) Pata Ducati 1:37,118 John Hopkins (USA) Crescent Fixi Suzuki