Kawasaki WSB - WSS testing..

[MadKaw]

Lascorz Second Quickest In Portuguese Testing
Newsflash, 24 January 2010
Joan Lascorz ended up second in the rankings after three days of testing at Portimao in Portugal, with the weather playing its part in disrupting some of his plans. The first day of testing for Joan and his team-mate Katsuaki Fujiwara began well, but rain on day two, and a still damp track on the final day, held back the progress of the team as it continued its preparations for the new season.

Partly because of the changeable track surface, both Joan and Kats set their best laps on the very first day, with Joan on a 1’45.292 and Kats overall fifth fastest from 14 runners, on a 1’45.988.

The team will now make preparations for its next private test, at Calafat on 8 and 9 February, before heading to Australia for yet more official tests against their 2010 Supersport rivals. These sessions take place shortly before the first race of the new season, which is scheduled for February 28, at Phillip Island.

Joan Lascorz: “We had a bit of a problem at the end. Yesterday in the wet I crashed and the team rebuilt the bike. In the wet this morning the bike felt OK, but when the track was dry this afternoon, and I could push harder, I realised that there was still something not straight or something wrong on the bike. By that stage we had little time left to try the second bike. It was looking like I could set a better time on the second bike anyway, but I had a front-end slide and lost the lap, even if I did not crash. We made some progress anyway, and were fastest on day one, before the weather changed.”

Katsuaki Fujiwara: “The test was OK, and today we tried some soft springs, then hard springs, to try to get more feedback for the rider. We got it a little bit better in front. Our winter tests have been important so that we can make changes to the bike to understand how they affect the race setup. Now we will do another test at Calafat, before we go to Australia for the last one, then the first race of the new season.”

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Vermeulen And Sykes Join Their Rivals At First Official Test Sessions
Newsflash, 24 January 2010
Chris Vermeulen and Tom Sykes had a chance to ride their Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R machines alongside many of their rivals during the first official tests of 2010, at Portimao, between 22 and 24 January. The three day test was often affected by adverse weather conditions, with the first day proving dry and sunny, then the second one was wet to start and the track never quite dried out. The final day eventually offered a dry track surface, but the early sessions had been still damp from the previous day's rains.

With some of the team’s testing plans interrupted by the constant changes in track grip, both Chris and Tom still got a chance to try out their latest Showa suspension developments, and felt an improvement.

In terms of lap times Chris set a best of 1’44.108 on the final day, with Tom just behind on a 1’44.365. These times put them 14th and 15th respectively in the final rankings, with Jonathan Rea fstest, on a 1'42.270.

There will be one more major pre-season test for all the top riders in WSB, at Phillip Island on 21 and 22 February, shortly before the first round in Chris’s native Australia, on 28 February.

In Portimao the final calendar was announced for 2010, and Silverstone will now replace Donington as the British venue of WSB and WSS, on August 1.

Chris Vermeulen “It went quite good but we were a bit unlucky with the weather. It is great to have learned the track before we come back here to race. We have different issues, some of the same issues, but we are definitely improving the bike. It is moving forward in the right direction. To be honest I did my best time on the standard, hard race tyre. At the end we had a small technical problem so we could not use the soft race/qualifying tyre. I hoped to be closer to the front than the gap we have now, but I think it is realistically more like one second. I think we will get there.”

Tom Sykes: “My shoulder injury was feeling bad after day one but the guys at the Clinica mobile did a good job and that has made it much better ever since then. Obviously we did a lot of work on the bike to get to the bottom of a few things. On our latest suspension there are areas where we have improved and generally there is a better feeling of what’s happening with the combination of tarmac, tyres and suspension. The feeling at the handlebars is definitely better overall, giving more direct feedback. We have progressed, but we still have some work to do. I am sure we can bring what we need to Phillip Island.”

[Strika]

Phillip Island test - Sunday AM
Leon Haslam opens the final World Superbike pre-season test at Phillip Island on top for Suzuki, ahead of five Ducatis, with daylight between them and Kawasaki as always!!!
1. Leon Haslam GBR Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 1min 32.484s
2. Noriyuki Haga JPN Ducati Xerox 1198 1min 32.518s
3. Michel Fabrizio ITA Ducati Xerox 1198 1min 32.669s
4. Carlos Checa ESP Althea Ducati 1098R 1min 32.952s
5. Lorenzo Lanzi ITA DFX Ducati 1098R 1min 32.979s
6. Shane Byrne GBR Althea Ducati 1098R 1min 33.147s
7. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 1min 33.190s
8. Max Biaggi ITA Aprilia Alitalia Racing RSV-4 1min 33.263s
9. Max Neukirchner GER Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR 1min 33.430s
10. Cal Crutchlow GBR Yamaha Sterilgarda YZF R1 1min 33.515s
11. Troy Corser AUS BMW Motorrad S1000RR 1min 33.766s
12. James Toseland GBR Yamaha Sterilgarda YZF R1 1min 33.839s
13. Jonathan Rea GBR Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR 1min 33.846s
14. Joshua Brookes AUS Echo-CRS Honda CBR1000RR 1min 33.935s
15. Jakub Smrz CZE PATA B&G Racing Ducati 1098R 1min 33.937s
16. Ruben Xaus ESP BMW Motorrad S1000RR 1min 34.246s
17. Andrew Pitt AUS Reitwagen BMW S1000RR 1min 34.301s
18. Leon Camier GBR Aprilia Alitalia Racing RSV-4 1min 34.307s
19. Chris Vermeulen AUS Kawasaki SRT ZX-10R 1min 34.399s
20. Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki SRT ZX-10R 1min 34.417s
21. Roland Resch AUT Reitwagen BMW S1000RR 1min 34.684s
22. Vittorio Iannuzzo ITA SCI Honda CBR1000RR 1min 34.991s
23. Roger Lee Hayden USA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1min 37.598s
24. Matteo Baiocco ITA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1min 37.657s

[Strika]

Live timing for anyone interested.

http://www.worldsbk.com/livetiming/

[Six Addict]

No spies and the yamaha is 10th... Maybe Suzuki will have the bike to beat, specially after how it performed in asbk last season