2005 BSB champion Lavilla has joined forces with Paul Bird's team, which won the BSB crown in 2002 and 2003, for its graduation to WSBK next year - and completed almost 200 laps doing his first encounter with the Honda CBR1000RR.

Despite no official timing being recorded, telemetry showed that Lavilla was on the pace of World Superbike regular, Lorenzo Lanzi, aboard the new 1098 Ducati.

"This was a very good test to do as it is over two months since I last raced and I am very happy with the way things went," said the 34-year-old Spaniard. "The team, as I expected, is very professional and there is already a great atmosphere so the transition is working well.

"On the first day, the conditions were OK but it was wet on the second day and very windy on the third day but we worked on a number of areas as well as using Pirelli tyres. We concentrated on set up rather than outright speed and although we still have a lot of work to do, I'm very happy with the progress we have made and to be on the pace of someone like Lanzi already is very encouraging," he added.

Team owner Paul Bird added that Lavilla - who finished on the WSBK podium 12 times between 1996 and 2003, when he moved to BSB - had already exceeded their high expectations.

"I knew it wouldn't take Greg long to get up to speed and being the world class rider that he is, it's showing already," said Bird. "He was under no pressure from us to go fast but he's so hungry having been away for World Superbikes for four years, he really is fired up. He needed time on the bike and that's what this test gave him and I was particularly impressed with how he adapted to the Pirelli tyres. It's only two months to the first race so we aim to fit in a lot more testing between now and then."

The team's next test is scheduled for January at Valencia before the team heads out to the Middle East for a final test prior to the first round of the 2008 championship, which gets underway at Qatar on February 23rd.