News

Following the departure of Aprilia and Kawasaki, it was left to BMW and Ducati to continue testing for a fourth day at Jerez de la Frontera (Spain) in preparation for the 26th edition of the Superbike World Championship which gets underway on 24th February at Phillip Island (Australia).

Weather conditions were sunny but cold, with the temperatures not rising above 12°C (21°C on track).

Quickest time was set by Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) in 1 minute 40.816 seconds on soft race tyres. Making his debut with the new team run by the Italian BMW subsidiary, Melandri is testing various suspension components in order to improve front-end confidence, which was one of the main problems that emerged during the past season. New signing Chaz Davies continued his learning curve on his second run-out with the other S1000RR after his first outing had been conditioned by bad weather.

Over in the Ducati Alstare garage, development work continued on the new Ducati 1199 Panigale machine, and Carlos Checa managed to reduce the gap separating him from the top on day 1 yesterday. The former champion lapped in 1'41"840 while new signing Ayrton Badovini, still feeling his way in after a switch from the four-cylinder BMW to twin-cylinder power, ended up with a time of 1'44"529.

German Max Neukirchner, who will take part in next year's championship with the same bike, is running with a Superstock 1000-spec machine but on slick tyres and his best time was 1'44"426. Other Ducati Superstock bikes in Spain were from the satellite Barni outfit for Niccolò Canepa (1'45"256) and 2012 runner-up Eddi La Marra (1'45"526).

Jerez testing concludes tomorrow Friday, the final day before the regulation six-week ban until mid-January, but heavy rain is expected.

Times - SBK: 1. Melandri (BMW) 1'40"816 (50 laps); 2. Checa (Ducati) 1'41"840 (58); 3. Davies (BMW) 1'42"716 (70); 4. Badovini (Ducati) 1'44"529 (64). STK: 1. Neukirchner (Ducati) 1'44"426 (56); 2. Canepa (Ducati) 1'45"256 (28); 3. La Marra (Ducati) 1'45"526 (57).