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07/10/2008 - 11:44 AM
Vallelunga, Italy
Team Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati's Ruben Xaus (Photo: Sterilgarda Racing) ยป More Photos
Four Ducati 1098 machines took the top four positions in two days of official SBK testing at Vallelunga, in preparation for the second half of the season which gets underway next week at Brno in the Czech Republic.
Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati), winner at Misano last weekend, lapped the 4.110 km circuit in 1 minute 36.032 seconds to claim the quickest time of the test, just a couple of tenths off the circuit's best lap held by Troy Bayliss. After recording positive times both on qualifying and race tires, the Spaniard chose to sit out today's afternoon session.
"We set the bike up well this morning and I was happy with what we had tested" declared Xaus. "We didn't have any particular tires to test in the afternoon and so we decided to save our engine for the Brno race. I lapped in 36.6 in race trim and 36.0 on qualifiers so I'm pretty happy about that".
Three more 1098 machines were behind Xaus in the standings, all three in factory Xerox livery, and they were headed by the 20-year-old Italian sensation Niccolò Canepa, 2007 Superstock 1000 champion. Canepa, testing at the Rome circuit in preparation for the Brno race, where he will line up as a wild-card, truly impressed
"It went well, to be honest I didn't expert to be competitive right away, because there's a big difference between bikes and this is the first time this year that I've been on a Superbike" commented Canepa. "In amongst all this, yesterday morning I crashed right away and took a big bang on my neck and shoulders, which are still hurting, so these two days of testing have been a real effort for me".
Fifth place went to Troy Corser with a Yamaha Motor Italia WSB R1, the first four-cylinder machine in the standings, while team-mate Noriyuki Haga, second behind Bayliss on day 1, lapped in a good race pace but was no higher than eleventh at the end of the two days.
Sixth and seventh quickest times went to Ryuichi Kiyonari and Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), both newcomers to the Rome track, while Jakub Smrz (Guandalini Ducati), Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Max Biaggi (Sterilgarda Ducati) made up the top 10. The Italian preferred to focus on race set-up in view of the next rounds of the championship and did not use a qualifying tyre.
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