Ducati sets Albacete BSB test pace

The first day of the major three-day BSB test at Albacete in Spain has seen the honours go to Airwaves Ducati’s Leon Haslam and Gregorio Lavilla.

The pair took their works 999s to the top two times, Leon pipping Lavilla with a 1:30.71 best, a fraction up on the Spaniard’s 1:30.79. 

The pair have spent much of the day experimenting with new shocks and tyres.
Rizla Suzuki’s Chris Walker was next fastest, as he and team-mate Cal Crutchlow spent the day finding a good base set-up. Walker set a
1:31.08 best, Cal fourth fastest with 1:31.76, and Hydrex honda’s Karl Harris next with a 1:32.87 lap.

Harris is riding for the first time this year, making the transition from Michelins and the HRC Hm Plant Blade he rode in 2006 to Dunlops aboard the Hydrex privateer bike. Stobart Honda are not at the test.

Michael Rutter’s MSS Discovery team are back out in Spain, with a new Ray Stringer-tuned engine fitted to the ZX-10R featuring an extra 10bhp over the previous incarnation used in Spain earlier this month.

He set a best of 1:32.91, the team working their way through a mountain of parts and settings to test.

Tom Tunstall was the only rider to suffer any kind of misfortune, running off the track into the gravel and tipping off at low speed. 

The day started hot before turning windy, and track conditions were good on the whole though dusty and slippery round the back of the track.