Melandri on the pace in Valencia

Marco Melandri and Eugene Laverty concluded a successful one-day test at Valencia today with the Italian posting impressive lap times during his first ever ride on a Superbike.

Riding a black and white factory Yamaha R1 the 28 year old Italian set a competitive 1.34.5 on a race tyre before posting a fast 133.9 on a qualifier.

Melandri has spent his career racing prototypes having graduated from 125GP to 250GP and into MotoGP in a career that has already spanned 13 years. But despite having no racing experience on a production bike or Pirelli tyres he demonstrated an impressive pace.

Laverty spent the test riding a 2010 bike and a new 2011 R1 and set a 1.34.9 after making set-up changes to improve rear grip around the second gear constant radios corners of Valencia.

Speaking to MCN, Laverty said: “It’s been another good test. After riding the bike at Magny Cours I knew it was good so we didn’t want to go too far away from that.

“We did dome good work with the 2011 bike. It’s not a major difference to the 2010 bike and we spent the day calibrating the electronics so that when we get to Phillip Island for our test we’re going to be ready to go.”

For full insight into the test see MCN out Wednesday 17th November.