Misano Test Day A Prize All

The KRT pairing of Tom Sykes and Jonathan led testing after a one-day official Dorna/Pirelli session at Misano, right after the race weekend. Sykes was on top this time round thanks to a best of 1’34.674. Rea did not do a lap in the morning session, but almost all of the other 21 riders did, as the track dried out before luchtime.

The atrocious overnight rains meant that the track was wet to start, then dried rapidly, with one piece of water remaining at T8 for a while. It then got good enough for Sykes to run out with a time that beat the lap record.

No qualifying rubber, even at this Pirelli test, for him or Rea.

Misano race two podium finisher Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was third fastest as his team-mate Chaz Davies crashed out near the end, and ended up sixth. They did make progress on the lack of confidence issue that claimed Davies in race two on Sunday.

Leon Camier was fourth fastest in his official MV, in his first test of the year, with Jordi Torres (Althea Racing BMW) fifth, in far from his first test.

Michael van der Mark (Honda World Superbike Team) piled in with a seventh best time and 89 laps. Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) did 64 laps, even on his bad left shoulder, and was eighth fastest.

Lorenzo Savadori (IodaRacing Team Aprilia) sorted himself out into ninth place, while Nicky Hayden’s work ethic and 99 laps on his Honda put him tenth.

Testing was needed by some of the teams before they head to America for round nine and as many crew chiefs say, the best day to test is right after a race, so you can make direct comparisons.

If that is the case then Kawasaki appears to have brought enough new stuff to make sure the same old faces and numbers end up in the podium corral for TV interviews, from here to the last round in Qatar in October. But for others like Camier and Davies, it was more than worthwhile in terms of trying to get back into contention.

By Gordon Ritchie