Submitted by David Emmett on
With the rain easing off since this morning, the afternoon saw most of the WSBK riders venture out on the second day of testing at Portimao. The two main exceptions were the factory Aprilia riders of Max Biaggi and Leon Camier, who, luckily as it turned out, had been booked to spend the day at a Piaggio event, before flying back to Portimao in the afternoon.
The afternoon saw Johnny Rea top the timesheets, after skipping the morning session, the Castrol Honda rider finishing ahead of Sterilgarda Yamaha's Marco Melandri, the Italian making significant progress at the Portuguese circuit. Carlos Checa was once again near the top of the timesheets, ending the day in 3rd, ahead of the Liberty Ducatis of Sylvain Guintoli and Jakub Smrz.
Testing concludes on Friday.
Results:
| Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff |
| 1 | 4 | J. Rea | Honda CBR1000RR | 1'54.718 | |
| 2 | 33 | M. Melandri | Yamaha YZF R1 | 1'55.063 | 0.345 |
| 3 | 7 | C. Checa | Ducati 1098R | 1'56.162 | 1.444 |
| 4 | 50 | S. Guintoli | Ducati 1098R | 1'56.505 | 1.787 |
| 5 | 96 | J. Smrz | Ducati 1098R | 1'56.902 | 2.184 |
| 6 | 66 | T. Sykes | Kawasaki ZX-10R | 1'57.213 | 2.495 |
| 7 | 58 | E. Laverty | Yamaha YZF R1 | 1'58.126 | 3.408 |
| 8 | 41 | N. Haga | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | 1'58.377 | 3.659 |
| 9 | 86 | A. Badovini | BMW S1000 RR | 1'58.711 | 3.993 |
| 10 | 84 | M. Fabrizio | Suzuki GSX-R1000 | 1'58.919 | 4.201 |
| 11 | 52 | J. Toseland | BMW S1000 RR | 1'59.390 | 4.672 |
| 12 | 121 | M. Berger | Ducati 1098R | 1'59.472 | 4.754 |
Comments
Promising season for Castrol Honda
Sound's very promising the performance of jonathan rea aboard that fireblade. he ended 4 in the previous season, i'll expect than the fireblade can handle better the RSV4F, also dont forgive bmw's am sure than we have a surprise by the german factory.
Go Marco!
I hope Melandri can do well in this series, it will do him some good. :)
Piaggio Event?
What is the point of scheduling a PR event involving your two factory riders in the middle of a pre-season test, one month before the first race? I know it worked out ok because of the weather but what were they thinking?!
No clue
I don't understand what's going on at Aprilia, overconfidence, they can skip a precious day of testing because they will easily win a second crown in 2011?
What's happening with Toseland?
Things don't look good for JT according to these times.
JT
I think he plays the piano now.