The Sterilgarda Go Eleven and Team Pedercini WSBK outfits wrapped up two days of testing at Qatar's Doha circuit with mixed emotions on Monday, as one continued to build on recent promise and the other succumbed to niggling problems.

There was more good news for Sterilgarda, which completed its pre-season preparations ahead of the season-opener at the same venue later this month. Ruben Xaus and Max Biaggi both confirmed the good performances they produced in testing in Australia, setting times close to the best official lap recorded during last year's race weekend, with Xaus just getting the upper hand at 1min 59.5secs.

Both riders focused on testing a new exhaust developed by Akrapovic, before turning their attention to improving their feeling via a series of set-up and electrical alterations. The only black mark came with a Biaggi fall, although the Roman was unhurt in the spill.

“I'm not completely satisfied by the results of this test," Biaggi, who clocked a best of 1min 59.9secs, admitted, "I haven't reached a good feeling with the motorbike yet, chiefly I want to better the turning. After the good test in Australia, I expected to find less problems here, but that's it. Anyway, we learnt a lot, and now we know the work we have to do, and we are ready do it the next time here in Qatar at the first round.”

If Biaggi was unhappy, however, he was not as down as the Pedercini team, which suffered a series of problems over both days of the Doha session. An electrical hitch prevented either Vittorio Iannuzzo or Ayrton Badovini from lapping effectively although, once the problems were fixed, they were able to test set-up ideas for the opening round, recording approximately the same time.

“Yesterday, we had some problem but, today, we have worked fine and bettered our times lap by lap," Iannuzzo commented, "We have found a good set-up with which I will start the first practice session of the [opening] round.”

As with Biaggi, however, there were spills in the Pedercini camp, with Badovini suffering a double fall that left him with an injured shoulder.

“I was improving my feeling with the motorbike when I had a double fall at the end of the session," he confirmed, "I lost the control of the rear and tumbled to the ground. I tried to run with the spare machine and I don't know what happened, but I fell again and got an injured shoulder - as well as a lot of damages for the motorbike.”