Rain Wrecks Portimao Test Again
Cycle News Staff | January 28, 2011
The third and final day of the World Superbike test in Portimao, Portugal was again mostly a washout with Castrol Honda’s Ruben Xaus leading the way in the two mostly wet sessions, the Spaniard lapping at 1:47.065 – by far the fastest today but still some four seconds slower than Jakub Smrz lapped in Wednesday’s dry session.Xaus, 13th overall after three days on the CBR1000RR, was over a second faster than Alstare Suzuki’s Michel Fabrizio today. Xaus’s best was a 1:47.065 with Fabrizio turning in a 1:48.267. From there the times dropped off with no other riders even cracking the 1:50s as very few completed many laps and some opted out completely.Overall, Smrz and his Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing Aprilia was the best of the three days, the Czech rider besting Castrol Honda’s Johnny Rea’s 1:43.676 and Yamaha’s Eugene Laverty’s 1:43.707. Tom Sykes made it four different brands in the top four with the Kawasaki man riding to a best of 1:43.770 on his new ZX-10R.
