Xaus to the forefront in wet testing in Portugal
Unofficial times recorded by the teams put Ten Kate Honda man Ruben Xaus (Images: Kel Edge Photography) at the top of the timesheets with a time of 1'55.8. The Spanish rider, on his first time out with the Ten Kate team, looked comfortable in the wet and did a lot of laps on his new CBR machine.
Three tenths of a second slower was Britain's Leon Haslam, the new BMW Motorrad man now looking comfortable on his S 1000 RR bike despite some electronic problems during the day, while Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare) set a similar time to Jonathan Rea (Ten Kate Honda), who did not go out at all today. Troy Corser was next up with the second BMW, with Noriyuki Haga (Aprilia Pata) also lapping under the two minute mark.
James Toseland got to grips with his new BMW machine, but it was the test team's S 1000RR and the two-times world champion was not aiming to post any quick laps. Maxime Berger's expected debut on the Supersonic Ducati 1098 was postponed as the Italian team decided not to make the trip down to Portugal due to the poor weather conditions.
Unofficial times: 1. Xaus (Honda) 1'55.8; 2. Haslam (BMW) 1'56.1; 3. Rea (Honda) 1'56.9; 4. Fabrizio (Suzuki) 1'56.9; 5. Corser (BMW) 1'57.1; 6. Toseland (BMW) 1'58.2; 7. Haga (Aprilia) 1'58.2
