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Bayliss fastest as 2008 begins |
The home star completed 66 laps of the challenging seaside circuit as he sought primarily to improve the rear set-up of his new 1200cc machine. Troy's best lap was a 1min 32.5secs, which placed him 0.3secs clear of his nearest rival - Yamaha's 2007 title runner-up Noriyuki Haga - although still some 0.7secs adrift of the official race lap record.
Haga's compatriot Yukio Kagayama scored the third fastest time for Alstare Suzuki, just 0.1secs further back, putting three different machines in the top three places.
Much Tuesday attention was focussed on former Alstare rider Max Biaggi, who made his Ducati debut with the Sterilgarda Go-Eleven outfit. The triple 2007 WSBK race winner finished the day one-second behind Bayliss, as Max and team-mate Ruben Xaus set exactly the same lap time on their customer 1098R to be tied for seventh place.
Biaggi's replacement, Fonsi Nieto, was an encouraging fourth quickest after running just a tenth ahead of current lap record holder Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia) and Bayliss' new factory team-mate Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox). Fabrizio fell at the top of Lukey Heights, hurting on his right foot in the aftermath of his slide.
With just a short amount of testing on the new ZX-10R completed so far, PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse riders Regis Laconi and Makoto Tamada sandwiched new Alstare Suzuki rider Max Neukirchner at the tail end of the field. Laconi set a 1min 34.0secs, an ill Neukirchner a 1min 35.5secs and Tamada a 1min 35.8secs.
Lap times should drop on Wednesday, when the official teams will be given development tyres by Pirelli, but not the satellite Sterilgarda outfit which will remain on 'standard' tyres. Hannspree Ten Kate Honda is the only factory WSBK outfit not present at the test.
In the World Supersport test, another home rider - Yamaha WSSP's Broc Parkes - set the pace after waiting for conditions to improve near the end of the day.
Parkes recorded a 1min 32.5secs to keep Hannspree Ten Kate Honda's WSS rider Andrew Pitt from the top spot by 0.3secs. Pitt's new team-mate and WSS class rookie Jonathan Rea scored a superb third best time, just 0.1secs further back, on his Ten Kate debut and despite a long lay off recovering from surgery.
Stiggy Honda's home rider Josh Brookes secured an impressive fourth at a track he has won on in WSS wild-card guise, while the progress of the Triumph Caracchi squad raised eyebrows. The 675ccc three-cylinder machine, in the hands of the vastly experienced Garry McCoy, went fifth fastest at the former 500cc and WSBK race winner's home track, ahead of names such as Fabien Foret, Chris Walker, Katsuaki Fujiwara and Robbin Harms.
Walker and Fujiwara were having their first test against their 2008 opposition at PI. Fujiwara is new to the GIL Kawasaki team, but Walker is new to Supersport racing in any form, making his 1min 36.6secs - equal to the best set by former world champion Foret (Yamaha WSSP) - a respectable start to his latest racing adventure.
