Byrne blitzes first day of Parkalgar WSB test

Shane Byrne showed his undoubted pace on day one of the official World Superbike test at Parkalgar to set the fastest time in both wet and dry sessions today.

The Sterilgarda Ducati rider picked up where he left off in testing last year at the Portuguese circuit to finish ahead of factory Xerox Ducati man Michel Fabrizio after making continuous improvements to his factory supported machine.

Shane Byrne said: “It’s a good start, but it’s early days. We made some little improvements during that session and I was one of the fastest even when I was on tyres that had done 22 laps.

“I put in new tyres and also tried a different fuel map and I went fastest and then right at the end we tried a different rear shock and I went faster again.

“We’ve still got work to do and we’ll be trying a few more things tomorrow.”

American Ben Spies put in a fast lap at the end of the session onboard his new Yamaha R1 to take third with German Max Neukirchner showing the potential of the new Alstare Suzuki in fourth. Noriyuki Haga rounded off the top five onboard his Xerox Ducati.

Brits Leon Halsam and Jonathan Rea secured seventh and eighth places respectively.

Haslam needed just 19 laps to get up to speed. Haslam’s Stiggy Honda has been built in the last two weeks and his day one time earned him the acolade of being top Honda on day one of the three day test.

Rea completed 62 laps working on a host of settings on his Ten kate Honda and ended the test one place ahead of team-mate Carlos Checa.

Tom Sykes riding for the first time since his high speed crash in Kyalami took 11th.

Tommy Hill had the task of learning the undulating circuit before he could push for a fast time and ended the day 21st, one place behind Ruben Xaus and two places ahead of factory Aprilia man Shinya Nakano.

1 67 Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1’44.265
2 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1’44.468
3 19 Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 1’44.652
4 76 Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’44.931
5 41 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1’44.976
6 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1’45.266
7 91 Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’45.323
8 65 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’45.329
9 7 Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1’45.373
10 71 Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’45.448
11 66 Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 1’45.558
12 55 Laconi R. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 1’45.914
13 53 Polita A. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1’46.110
14 23 Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’46.121
15 11 Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1’46.261
16 3 Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 1’46.440
17 9 Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1’46.586
18 36 Lavilla G. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1’46.948
19 100 Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’46.957
20 111 Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 1’47.340
21 33 Hill T. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’47.639
22 24 Roberts B. (AUS) Ducati 1098R 1’47.699
23 56 Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 1’48.269
24 25 Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’48.274
25 99 Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’49.800
26 77 Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1’50.187
27 44 Rolfo R. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1’53.550