Ruben Xaus brought the mid-season World Superbike test to a close with the fastest lap of the two days around Vallelunga, Italy.
Continuing Ducati's dominance around their home circuit, the 1098 filled the top four positions, although it was the satellite Sterilgarda machine of Misano winner Xaus that led the way with a time of 1min 36.032secs.
Half a second quicker than
Troy Bayliss' best from the day before, nearly all of the riders improved on their previous efforts in today's morning session. Just three riders would go quicker in the afternoon though as many riders chose to sit out.
Niccolò Canepa maintained his impressive form as he prepares for his WSBK bow, the young Italian proving the best of the three Xerox machines, four tenths adrift of Xaus in second.
Still, while Xerox will be perhaps a little surprised to see Canepa as their best rider through the test, Bayliss and
Michel Fabrizio weren't exactly far behind as they came away with the third and fourth best times too.
Troy Corser was the best of the non-Ducatis, the Yamaha rider going fifth best, ahead of
Ryuichi Kiyonari who was sixth fastest on the Ten Kate Honda, ahead of team-mate
Carlos Checa in seventh.
Noriyuki Haga, who was third fastest on day one, slipped to eighth place, ahead of Jakub Smrz and Kenan Sofioglu, the Turk showing a significant upturn in form today as he lowered his best lap by 1.5secs.
Just outside the top ten, Max Biaggi was only 11th fastest, but chose to spend the day working on set-up and did not set a lap of the optimum qualifying tyre.
