Airwaves breeze Albacete test.

Airwaves Ducati riders Leon Haslam and Gregorio Lavilla head for the final pre-season test, and the start of the 2007 BSB season, confident that they'll again be in firm championship contention after setting the pace at Albacete in Spain.

With the aid of qualifying tyres, 2006 title runner-up Haslam claimed the top spot on the overall testing timesheets with a lap of 1min 29.85secs, just 0.11secs quicker than team-mate and former champion Lavilla, with Rizla Suzuki's Chris Walker third overall on a 1min 30.070secs.

However, Lavilla gained the advantage over his team-mate on race tyres, setting a 1min 30.12secs compared with Haslam's 1min 30.62secs.

"I am pleased with how the test has gone as we completed everything that we had planned to do. We concentrated on problems that we experienced at the end of last season and so far we have not had a problem with any of those things, which I hope will continue into the season!" smiled Lavilla. "I was also able to try a number of different set ups which we talked about last year but have not been able to try until now and they also worked well. The race run went very well and my times were good. If the bike and Dunlop tyres continue working as well as they have in Almeria and Albacete on the BSB tracks then we will be highly competitive in 2007."

The team had scheduled a three day test at the 3.539 km circuit but Lavilla finished his schedule in just two days, during which he totalled 603 km's and a race simulation some 4.6 seconds faster than last year.

Meanwhile, Haslam continued into day three to fine tune his 999's settings and investigate fuel mapping improvements, eventually completing 241 laps, despite a fall.

"I am really happy with how things have gone as I was quickest in every session until I crashed," said the Briton. "The crash didn't really affect me as I was not hurt but it cost us some valuable time as I had planned to do some race runs but was not able to. On the whole it was a good test and my aim for Snetterton now is just to acclimatise myself and fine tune the bike for the cooler conditions that we are expecting."

The Snetterton test will take place on 24-25th March before the season commences at Brands Hatch on April 9th. Reigning BSB champion Ryuichi Kiyonari and his HM Plant Honda team were not present at the Albacete test.