Honda satisfied after final round of testing in Jerez – Sykes leads

In what will be the final week of World Superbike testing of 2012 before the winter testing ban comes into effect all of the top teams descended on the Jerez circuit in southern Spain.

With action scheduled for the full week not all the teams are testing at the same time. Honda, Kawasaki and Aprilia were the main teams to test at the start of the week with Honda concluding their two days of testing yesterday.

The two man squad of Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam were both tasked with working on different areas during the test. For Haslam it was a chance to continue to adjust to the Honda package after two years with BMW and he worked on set-up and balance options of the CBR1000RR.

For Rea the test was about dialling in an all new electronics package, believed to have come directly from the Respol Honda team in MotoGP.

The man at the top of the timesheets was once again the blisteringly fast Tom Sykes on his factory Kawasaki. Throughout 2012 Sykes has been the benchmark in terms of out right lap times and the Jerez test was no exception.

Sykes and his team-mate Loris Baz have also spent time evaluating Ohlins suspension. Throughout 2012 the team ran with factory Showa and it remains unclear at this stage if the switch to Ohlins is permanent.

After months of speculation Sylvain Guintoli finally got his first outing on the official factory Aprilia RSV4 – although there has been no official confirmation that he will actually ride the bike in 2013. Despite the uncertainty the Frenchman wasted no time to end the second day with the second fastest time behind Sykes.

Testing continues today with the Goldbet BMW team of Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri plus the new Astare Ducati squad of Carlos Checa and Aryton Badovini joining the party.

Day two times
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)   1.41.0
Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia)  1.41.283
Eugene Laverty (Aprilia)  1.41.762
Leon Haslam (Honda)  1.42.039
Loris Baz (Kawasaki)  1.42.100
Jonathan Rea (Honda)  1.42.108
Michel Fabrizio (Aprilia)  1.42.114
Alex Hoffman (Aprilia)  1.43.028