World Superbike News

Shane Byrne

The World Superbike teams ended their first three-day test session of the season on Sunday at the Parkalgar circuit in Portugal.

On Thursday, the Formula One testing session had to cancelled when extreme weather conditions deemed the track too dangerous with standing water and poor visibility.

The riders faced full wet conditions for the Friday morning slot but the track did begin to dry out for the afternoon, seeing Shane Byrne set the fastest times in both wet and dry sessions on the Sterilgarda Ducati.

Byrne was passed later in the session by Michel Fabrizio on the Ducati Xerox and Ben Spies on the Yamaha World superbike, but held the upper hand by the end of the day.

Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus, were on track to swing their legs over the new BMW S1000 RR for the first time, testing alongside a total of 25 other riders at the circuit, all of who went quicker in the drying conditions in the afternoon.

Byrne’s led the timesheets again on the second day of testing, beating the previous track record of Troy Bayliss, and not even on qualifying tyres.  Quite impressive for a privateer in his first full season in World Superbikes.

For the third and final day of testing the dismal weather conditions returned and only two of the riders improved on their times, Troy Corser and Max Biaggi.

All the riders became familiar with the new Superpole qualifying rules on the final day as each of them was given a trial run.

There will now be 20 riders in the qualifying group, which will then be brought down to 16, and then finally to just 8, to determine the pole setter.

The only other main rule changes for this season include a switch to ‘flag-to-flag’, this is where a change of bike is allowed if it rains during the race.

Most of the teams and riders will now move-on to Phillip Island to prepare for the opening round of the World Superbike Championship which starts on 1st March in Australia.

Here are the overall best times for the third day of practice;

Pos – Rider – Team – Best Time

1 – Shane Byrne – Sterilgarda – 1′43.294
2 – Ben Spies – Yamaha World Superbike – 1′43.484
3 – Noriyuki Haga – Ducati Xerox Team – 1′43.487
4 – Tom Sykes – Yamaha World Superbike – 1′43.546
5 – Carlos Checa – HANNspree Ten Kate Honda – 1′43.657
6 – Max Neukirchner – Suzuki Alstare – 1′43.674
7 – Jakub Smrz – Guandalini Racing – 1′43.767
8 – Michel Fabrizio – Ducati Xerox Team – 1′43.951
9 – Jonathan Rea – HANNspree Ten Kate Honda – 1′44.115
10 – Leon Haslam – Stiggy Racing Honda – 1′44.170
11 – Troy Corser – BMW Motorrad Team Alpha R. – 1′44.261
12 – Yukio Kagayama – Suzuki Alstare – 1′44.425
13 – Régis Laconi – DFX Corse – 1′44.546
14 – Ryuichi Kiyonari – Ten Kate Honda Racing – 1′44.610
15 – Broc Parkes – Kawasaki World Superbike R.T. – 1′44.704
16 – Alessandro Polita – Sterilgarda – 1′45.108
17 – Shinya Nakano – Aprilia Racing – 1′45.179
18 – Max Biaggi – Aprilia Racing – 1′45.199
19 – Brendan Roberts – Guandalini Racing – 1′45.278
20 – David Salom – Team Pedercini – 1′45.393
21 – Makoto Tamada – Kawasaki World Superbike R.T. – 1′45.446
22 – Gregorio Lavilla – Pro Ride World Superbike – 1′45.672
23 – Tommy Hill – HANNspree Honda Althea – 1′45.679
24 – Luca Scassa – Team Pedercini – 1′45.820
25 – Ruben Xaus – BMW Motorrad Team Alpha R – 1′46.128
26 – Roberto Rolfo – Stiggy Racing Honda – 1′46.916
27 – Vittorio Iannuzzo – Squadra Corse Italia – 1′46.971