Spanish privateer Xavi Fores has upstaged the factory riders to complete the opening day of a two-day world superbike test session at Phillip Island with the fastest time.
The Ducati rider set a best lap of 1min31.412secs to edge out world champion Jonathan Rea on his Kawasaki, with the top five completed by Marco Melandri (Ducati), Michael van der Mark (Yamaha) and Leon Camier (MV Agusta) – the latter completing the most laps on day one.
After persistent showers finally cleared, the WorldSBK field really gone down to business in today’s second session, and times are again expected to fall tomorrow with fine conditions on the horizon. Riders will then have two days off before round one action begins back at Philip Island on Friday.
World No. 2 Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) was sixth fastest today, while Ducati’s Chaz Davies, who won the last six WorldSBK races in 2016, was eighth on the timesheets.
Australia’s Josh Brookes (Yamaha) completed day one in 16th position in the 21-rider WorldSBK field.
In world supersport, Frenchman Jules Cluzel was fastest on his Honda, while teenager Lachlan Epis (Kawasaki) was the leading Aussie.
The second day of official testing will see the WorldSBK and WorldSSP pilots go out for two sessions each as pre-season comes to a close.
