Source: Ducati.

The last European private test of the pre-season concluded today at Southern Spain’s Circuito de Jerez with Davide Giugliano topping the time sheets courtesy of an impressive 1m39.332s lap time set with less than an hour to go.

The Aruba.it Racing Ducati Superbike Team rider lapped almost a second quicker than the current outright best lap of the track, which was set last year by former Kawasaki Racing Team rider Loris Baz.

After what was an already fast time early in the morning of 1m40.8s, Giugliano’s track time was heavily reduced due to a crash and later technical issues.

Because of that, the Italian rider managed to complete only 41 laps, compared to the 87 put in by the most active of them all today, Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils).

In the closing stages of today’s session there were several improvements as Kawasaki Racing Team’s Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea ended up in second and third places, respectively, ahead of Chaz Davies, who fell off his 1199 Panigale R almost at the same time his teammate Giugliano did.

New Red Devils recruit Leon Haslam focused primarily on race pace and was fifth fastest, followed by fellow Briton and close friend Alex Lowes (Crescent Suzuki) and by the only Pata Honda rider on track today, Michael van der Mark. Guintoli was ruled out of the test due to yesterday’s early crash.

WSBK rookie Nico Terol (Althea Racing Team Ducati) improved his performance today as he was only 1.4s slower than Giugliano’s super-quick lap time. Frenchman Randy De Puniet crashed out twice but managed to end up ninth, faster than Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing Team) and Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils).

Team Hero EBR’s new signing Niccolò Canepa was able to significantly improve his lap-times today, as he put his experience and speed to good use developing his 1190RX.

The bike’s innovative single-disc set-up suited the Southern Spanish track, but he feels that a more conventional braking system will favour circuits with harder braking areas.

The World Superbike and Supersport teams will now get ready for the official WSBK test scheduled on 16-17 February at Phillip Island, a few days ahead of the 2015 season opener, taking place on the same track from 20-22 February. Visit www.worldsbk.com.au for tickets.