The World Superbike teams finished up their first official test of the new year on Sunday at the Portimao circuit in Portugal. The riders started the test on Friday in good conditions, and the quickest riders out of the box were Leon Haslam on the Suzuki GSXR-1000 and Jonathan Rea on the Honda CBR1000RR. Haslam led both sessions of day one for his new Alstare team, but Rea was only a few tenths behind on his Ten Kate mount. Shakey Byrne and Michel Fabrizio on Ducatis, Cal Crutchlow and James Toseland on Yamahas and Max Biaggi on the Aprilia were all less than .5 off the time of Haslam.Wet conditions prevailed at the track on Saturday with the top time from the first session down 12.3 seconds from Friday’s quick time. The weather improved for session two, but the best time was still 6.3 seconds off Friday’s best. The conditions in session one were so bad that Byrne, Fabrizio, Biaggi and Haga stayed in the pits. Rea and Haslam continued to battle it out for the top spot, but it was Rea who came away with the quickest time in both sessions. Rainmeister Chris Vermulen managed to come away with the third quickest time of session one on the Paul Bird Kawasaki ZX 10R, but his times for all of the other sessions were outside the top ten. Crutchlow was fourth in both sessions on the Yamaha YZF R1.
Conditions improved on Sunday and the riders were able to set the fastest times of the weekend, but it was still Rea and Haslam at the top. Rea once again took the quick time in both session, but Haslam was never far off his pace. Haga and Fabrizio were consistent runners all weekend, and managed to run third and fourth quickest in the early Sunday session. Rea continued his dominance in the final session with a time .287 seconds quicker than anything that had been run all weekend.
With the departure of Ben Spies and John Hopkins the only American riding in the series is Roger Hayden. Riding for a new team on an unfamiliar circuit Hayden’s quickest time was 4.7 seconds off the quick time of Rea. Fellow American Jason DiSalvo was at Portimao testing a World Supersport Triumph 675 for his new team. DiSalvo ended the weekend ninth fastest and 2.7 seconds off the top time set by Eugene Laverty on a Honda CBR600RR.
BMW, Aprilia and Ducati will be testing at Valencia this week. The first race of the season is at Phillip Island on February 28th, and the teams will fly out to the Australian circuit the week prior to the race for their final pre-season test.
World Superbike Test Times
1.42.270 -0.000 Rea J.
1.42.557 -0.287 Haslam L.
1.42.877 -0.607 Byrne S.
1.42.960 -0.690 Crutchlow C.
1.43.137 -0.867 Fabrizio M.
1.43.157 -0.887 Toseland J.
1.43.364 -1.094 Biaggi M.
1.43.417 -1.147 Haga N.
1.43.471 -1.201 Neukirchner M.
1.43.508 -1.238 Guintoli S.
1.43.629 -1.359 Checa C.
1.43.749 -1.479 Camier L.
1.43.931 -1.661 Corser T.
1.44.108 -1.838 Vermeulen C.
1.44.365 -2.095 Sykes T.
1.44.570 -2.300 Xaus R.
1.44.751 -2.481 Parkes B.
1.45.348 -3.078 Iannuzzo V.
1.46.990 -4.720 Hayden R.
1.47.293 -5.023 Fores J.
