Phillip Island : Carlos Checa takes command on final day of WSBK testing

from TWOWHEELSBLOG
After Monday’s sunny and hot day of World Superbike testing at Phillip Island, the second and final day took place under grey skies and a few drops of rain that left the track half and half, neither dry nor wet, but slowly begining to dry out and by the afternoon session the conditions were perfect and allowed the riders to further drop yesterday’s lap times.
Leading the top of the timesheets was Carlos Checa with the new Ducati 1199 Panigale, who dropped a major hint to his rivals that the Panigale, despite previous speculations of much development work to still be done, will be competitive when the first round of the season rolls around on Sunday.
After having skipped the two day private test due to intestinal problems, Checa’s best lap was in 1.31.059, four tenths faster than yesterday and two tenths faster than Leon Camier’s fastest lap from day 1.
It was a tight session with eleven riders in less than a second. Following Checa was Marco Melandri, who continues to have doubts that his shoulder will hold for an entire race let alone two. Tom Sykes moved back up the charts to where we usually see him, his hand injury bothering him less than yesterday
Michel Fabrizio continues to impress with his Aprilia as he concluded the day ahead of Aprilia factory riders Sylvain Guintoli and Eugene Laverty who were 8th and 9th respectively.
Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam were 5th and 6th, with the Northern Irishman two tenths faster than his team mate, with Haslam moving up in the final minutes. Althea Racing’s Davide Giugliano was also faster than the two Aprilia factory riders finishing the day in 7th, but he suffered a crash.
The morning session also saw activities stop after already injured Jules Cluzel suffered another crash - his third in four test days - that took him out for the rest of the day , but his best lap still gave him the 11th spot on the timesheets, while team mate Leon Camier was the only rider who didn’t make any headway on the final day, but in the overall times he was fourth fastest.
Chaz Davies was 12th ahead of the two Australian wildcards, Glenn Allerton who riding a BMW S1000RR for Hepburn Motorsport and Jamie Stauffer on a Fireblade for Team Honda Racing. Loris Baz was 15th, still feeling the after effects from his crash last Friday.
Max Neukirchner skipped the final day after his big crash yesterday, while Alstare’s Ayrton Badovini decided to return to track, but just for 8 laps, following his horrible crash on Friday that sent him to the hospital and the team with a burned up Panigale.
 
WSBK test Phillip Island Day 2 results:
01- Carlos Checa – Team Ducati Alstare – Ducati 1199 Panigale R – 1’31.059
02- Marco Melandri – BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team – BMW S1000RR – + 0.178
03- Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 0.202
04- Michel Fabrizio – Red Devils Roma – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 0.291
05- Jonathan Rea – Pata Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 0.297
06- Leon Haslam – Pata Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 0.490
07- Davide Giugliano – Althea Racing – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 0.581
08- Sylvain Guintoli – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 0.599
09- Eugene Laverty – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 0.653
10- Leon Camier – FIXI Crescent Suzuki – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 0.755