Laverty tops day 1 of 2014 Phillip Island SBK test
Ahead of the weekend's (February 21 - 23) opening round of the 2014 eni FIM World Superbike Championship, Laverty was joined by most of the main game teams in the final test session before the season gets underway.
After setting the pace in the morning with a 1min 30.513 secs best lap, Laverty remained on top of the timesheets in this afternoon's second two-hour session, but was unable to better his morning time.
Ducati's Davide Guigliano (1:30.718) made up two positions in the afternoon to slot in behind Laverty, followed by the two Kawasakis of world champion Tom Sykes (1:30.737) and Loris Baz (1:30.757).
Sykes was the biggest workaholic over the two sessions, logging a combined total of 67 laps around the 4.45km circuit.
World superbike rookie Alex Lowes (Suzuki) was superb on his first outing at Phillip Island, stopping the clock at 1:31.000, followed by Aprilia's Marco Melandri (1:31.146), Leon Haslam (Honda, 1:31.172), Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia, 1:31.321), Jonathan Rea (Honda, 1:31.404) and Chaz Davies (Ducati, 1:31.419).
Haslam, Guintoli and lap record holder Laverty will be the only riders on this weekend's round one grid to have won world superbike races at Phillip Island.
Niccolo Canepa (Ducati, 1:31.897) maintained his position as the fastest EVO rider, and was 11th overall on day one. The Erik Buell Racing EVOs of Aaron Yates and Geoff May were both not classified at the end of day one, as was the BMW EVO of Peter Sebestyen.
The Bimota EVOs of Ayrton Badovini and Christian Iddon were not a part of this test session.
Among those to crash in the afternoon session were Italian Michael Fabrizio (Kawasaki) and Frenchman Sylvain Barrier (BMW), both transported to Melbourne for x-rays and assessment.
World Superbike Monday 1st and 2nd sessions combined
Results:
1. Laverty (Suzuki) 1'30.513 average 176.912 kph;
2. Giugliano (Ducati) 1'30.718;
3. Sykes (Kawasaki) 1'30.737;
4. Baz (Kawasaki) 1'30.757;
5. Lowes (Suzuki) 1'31.000;
6. Melandri (Aprilia) 1'31.146;
7. Haslam (Honda) 1'31.172;
8. Guintoli (Aprilia) 1'31.321;
9. Rea (Honda) 1'31.404;
10. Davies (Ducati) 1'31.419;
11. Canepa (Ducati) 1'31.897;
12. Elias (Aprilia) 1'32.301;
13. Salom (Kawasaki) 1'32.636;
14. Corti (MV Agusta) 1'32.858;
15. Barrier (BMW) 1'32.997;
16. Guarnoni (Kawasaki) 1'33.509;
17. Foret (Kawasaki) 1'33.676;
18. Morais (Kawasaki) 1'33.954;
19. Scassa (Kawasaki) 1'33.960;
20. Andreozzi (Kawasaki) 1'34.140;
21. Fabrizio (Kawasaki) 1'34.314.
22. Toth (BMW) 1'36.258;
NC. May (EBR) 1'38.152;
NC. Yates (EBR) 1'39.656;
NC. Sebestyen (BMW) 1'42.242.
images: courtesy of IRPR
