Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow really put on the heat on the final day of testing. He found the perfect setup on race tires, setting a new lap record as well as taking the top spot in the test. His teammate, former MotoGP Rider James Toseland continues to struggle for grip on the R1, ending the test far behind his teammate, as the 11th fastest rider. The second fastest rider of the test, was Ducati rider Michel Fabrizio. Michel has been consistent this season, but is still lacking what it takes to get consistent wins. Michel also reached his fastest time of the weekend today, but in an earlier morning session. Leon Haslam rounded out the theoretical "podium" for the test, only a half second slower than Crutchlow. Notably, Haslam had two crashes today. In one of the crashes, he made contact with veteran Shane "Shakey" Byrne, who's hand or arm was injured in the test. 

Hondas Jonathan Rea was 4th fastest, only three-one-hundredths behind competitor Haslam. Rea, like his other competitors who have been struggling for speed this weekend, may have found something that he likes in the new tires Pirelli was testing at the track. 

More, from press releases issued by various Teams and Manufacturers
                                                                                                                           

Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team

The Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team headed straight off to Imola following last weekend’s race at Misano, and today completed a two day test in the sweltering Italian sunshine. The team spent the two days testing further areas of electronics, including traction control, wheelie control and launch control. They also worked to find improvements in the chassis, in particular the balance of the bike. 

At the end of the test it was Cal Crutchlow who came out fastest of the World Superbike riders, recording a time nearly half a second faster than closest rivals. 

Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (1st, 1’47.478, 125laps)
“I’m happy with result of the test but we’ve got to win the races as well. We’ve tried a lot of different settings here, finally the best are close to how we started at the beginning. Hopefully over the summer break we’ll get some new parts and make more of a difference. We’re going to Brno with good confidence and we’ll take away from this test some good positives.” 

James Toseland, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (11th, 1’49.031, 127laps)
“It’s been a bit of a frustrating test for me. We’ve been concentrating over the two days on trying various different settings to try and maximise the grip on the bike as opposed to focussing on getting the fastest lap time. At the end of it I don’t feel I’ve managed to get closer so I’ve been struggling a bit.”

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team
“We tested quite a lot of different things here at Imola, including various areas of electronics, we’ve also looked at the chassis to see what we can do to improve the balance. Both riders also spent some time testing some new tyres that Pirelli bought to the test. Cal finished fastest at the end and put in an impressive performance. James was not as fast so we need to look at our data and see what we can do to improve this.” 
                                                                                                                            

Ducati Xerox Team

THE DUCATI XEROX TEAM CONCLUDES TWO DAYS OF VERY POSITIVE TESTING AT IMOLA

Imola (Italy), Wednesday 30th June 2010: Temperatures were marginally lower for the start of the second day of testing at Imola (27°C air, 30°C track temperature) and the Ducati Xerox riders Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio were able to continue with the testing of the various Pirelli tyre compounds, with some extremely positive results. Fabrizio concluded the morning session at the top of the timesheets, having recorded some very impressive lap times (1m47.8), better than those set last year. His best lap this morning was 0.5 seconds faster than his flying lap yesterday.

During the same session, Noriyuki and his team were able to increase traction which gave the Japanese rider a better feeling with his 1198, and allowed him to register some interesting lap times. Unfortunately twenty minutes before the lunch break, and while testing the new front tyre that he hadn't ridden with yesterday, Haga had a low speed crash, on entry in Tosa corner, losing the front though fortunately uninjured. He closed his session there, having recorded the sixth fastest time, made in his penultimate exit with a new rear tyre.

Haga went straight back out after lunch and immediately set a 1'48.5, despite the elevated track temperature. Lap times, for both Nori and Michel, remained constant and they closed the session in second (Noriyuki) and third (Michel) position. The time recorded by Fabrizio this morning (1'47.8) was the overall second fastest time of the two-day test, four tenths from Cal Crutchlow's fastest lap, registered late this afternoon; Haga set his own fastest time (1'48.0) right before concluding his session today, improving by eight tenths on his best time set yesterday, to finish fifth overall.

Michel Fabrizio
"We continued with the tyre testing today and with one of the new rears I had a particularly good feeling and went half a second faster than yesterday which wasn't bad. We'll see how the tyres behave when we return for the race but on hot tarmac they have worked well, providing a good level of grip. Now I'll start to concentrate on the next event at Brno, a track a like very much."

Noriyuki Haga
"These two days of testing have gone very well. As usual we've tried various settings over the two days and I found a good feeling with the front; it's only a shame that I had a crash this morning - let's say that the new front tyre solution is not for me. With the new rears on the other hand I was able to get into a good rhythm, with a good pace. We will continue with the work during the September race weekend to see if we can further improve absorption levels, but I can say that I'm satisfied with what we've achieved here."

TIMES (overall): 1. Crutchlow (Yamaha) 1'47.7; 2. Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1'47.8; 3. Haslam (Suzuki) 1'47.9; 4. Rea (Honda) 1'47.9; 5. Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1'48.0; 6. Checa (Ducati) 1'48.1; 7. Xaus (BMW) 1'48.3; 8. Byrne (Ducati) 1'48.6; 9. Biaggi (aprilia) 1'48.6; 10. Skyes (Kawasaki) 1'48.9

Xerox Ducati on day 1

THIRD AND FOURTH FASTEST TIMES FOR FABRIZIO AND HAGA (DUCATI XEROX) DURING IMOLA TESTING

Imola (Italy), Tuesday 29th June 2010: The Ducati Xerox team, having only just concluded the Misano race weekend, drove straight to Imola's "Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari" where, together with the other Superbike teams, they are participating in two days of official testing, scheduled by championship organiser Infront Sports. The penultimate race of the 2010 World Superbike season will take place at the Imola circuit, from 24th to 26th September.

In conditions not dissimilar to Misano  (35°C air, 46°C track) factory riders Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki Haga worked hard during roughly seven hours of track time. The work this morning mainly involved set-up refinements being made in light of September's Imola round and, with no particular innovations to test in the second half of the day, the team concentrated on tyre testing (Pirelli having brought various new solutions for teams to test).

During the morning's session Michel was the first, and only, rider to lap under 1'49, recording a few very fast laps while testing the new front tyre solution. Consistently fast, Fabrizio made his fastest lap (1'48.6) just before the lunch break, to close this first session on top, four tenths ahead of Haslam in second. Noriyuki, together with his technicians, did not concentrate so much on times and worked instead to increase levels of traction and absorption, closing the morning twelfth.

By the early afternoon the track temperature had increased to 50°C and Noriyuki and Michel both decided to wait before going back out on track. The work continued from about 15.00, with Haga improving significantly on the times set in the morning and Fabrizio maintaining his impressive pace; both riders tried several of the new rear tyre compounds with some very positive results, a sign of Pirelli's hard work. The Roman rider closed day one with the third fastest time overall, four tenths from Haslam and Crutchlow. Noriyuki finished today with the fourth best time.

At the end of this first day, the Ducati Xerox riders have completed more than 70 laps each. Work continues for both Noriyuki and Michel here at the Imola track tomorrow.

Michel Fabrizio
"It's very hot here today. In the morning, with the new Pirelli front tyre, I made the first of my fast laps and in the last minutes of the session I was able to improve even further which I'd say is a good result in these conditions. The problem is that when we come back for the race in September it may be much cooler compared to today; anyway it's been a positive day and I'll be doing my best to make further improvement tomorrow."

Noriyuki Haga
"This morning we started with one bike set up as per Misano, and one with last year's Imola setting. We seem to have improved on last year's setting and then we concentrated on improving the level of bump absorption, a job we'll continue with tomorrow. In the afternoon I changed our usual rear for one of the new solutions and it immediately made a big difference. I tried three of the new rears in the end and all of them are fairly similar, and seem to perform well; I was able to find good pace. Tomorrow we'll try the new front tyre and see if we can improve on the times." 

                                                                                                                            

More from WSBK 

Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha Sterilgarda) was in dazzling form in the final session of testing at Imola, posting the fastest time of 1'47.478 to beat the previous track best from last year's race. The English rider used a race tyre to set his best time. The next three riders who were fastest over the two days of the tests had to rely on earlier lap times to take their places in the final rankings, with Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) second, on a 1'47.854 that he set this morning.

Crutchlow declared: "I got through a bit of stuff today. It was a good enough job and we strung quite a few good laps together and did 30-odd laps on one of the new tyres. So all-in-all, not too bad. We will keep going and see what we can do in the next races."

Leon Haslam (Alstare Suzuki) had two big crashes today, the second a collision with his fellow Briton Shane Byrne (Althea Ducati), with Shane cutting his hand and suffering a suspected broken second metacarpal bone. Haslam was still third fastest overall, but was reliant on his day one best time. Jonathan Rea was faster today than yesterday on his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR, and the last rider with a time inside the 1'47s.

A somewhat rejuvenated Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) was fifth, heading off third place rider in the overall championship standings, Carlos Checa (Althea Ducati). Ruben Xaus was fast in the morning session today, going seventh overall in the standings, but stopping early to rest the leg he hurt in a collision with another rider at Misano on Sunday.

Before his late session fall, Byrne had done enough to secure eighth place, one up on championship leader Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia). Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) rounded out a top ten of great variety, with all seven competing manufacturers represented.

In the Supersport division, which was scheduled alongside the Superbikes for two days, Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) was the fastest, with a 1'51.572 lap from this morning.

In yesterday's session for the Superstock 1000 runners the rankings were headed by Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia STK) who recorded a lap time of 1'52.375.

From the start of July pre-sales will be getting underway for the Imola round of the Superbike World Championship on September 24-26. For further information, go to www.ticketone.it