Source: Supplied.

As testing resumed in Jerez on Tuesday ahead of the 2016 Motul FIM Superbike World Championship, Markus Reiterberger was just 23 thousandths of a second slower than Tom Sykes.

However, it was world champion Jonathan Rea who led the way with a lap time quicker than the Jerez pole position of last season.

Back in September, Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) had taken the Jerez pole position with a lap time of 1m40.292s. On this Tuesday however, teammate Rea dipped underneath that as he produced 1m40.139s on the all-new Kawasaki ZX-10R.

Incidentally, this was some seven tenths of a second quicker than the laptime with which Rea had topped the timesheets when the test began on Monday.

Sykes, whose program was slightly disrupted by a small crash at turn two, ended the second day three and a half tenths down on Rea. Both KRT riders will take a day of rest on Wednesday before returning to the track on Thursday and Friday.

Conditions may have been slightly cooler on Tuesday than they had been 24 hours earlier, but Reiterberger was certainly warming to the Althea Racing BMW S1000RR, ending proceedings only 23 thousandths down on Sykes and four tenths slower than pace-setter Rea.

Fourth was Jordi Torres, the Spaniard on only his second day of riding the Althea BMW, was less than half a second in arrears of his teammate.

At MV Agusta Reparto Corse, Marco Melandri was again the only representative riding the F4 RR. The Italian, who is not as tall as regular rider Leon Camier, admitted to some difficulties in shifting his weight around the bike’s sizeable fuel tank.

Incidentally, the team will be testing a new fuel tank this week and the aforementioned Camier will be taking to the track on Thursday and Friday.

Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing, Kawasaki ZX-6R) and Raffaele de Rosa (Althea Racing, BMW S1000RR) were the quickest riders for the respective FIM Supersport World Championship and FIM Superstock 1000 Cup categories.

In WorldSSP, Lorenzo Zanetti rode alongside Jules Cluzel at MV Agusta Reparto Corse for the first time this week. The latter continued to adapt to his latest situation on board the F3 675; the Frenchman has limited mobility in his left ankle following his heavy crash at the same circuit two months ago.

In the STK1000 ranks, there were two riders on-track that had not been in action on Monday, as Team Pedercini ran its Kawasaki ZX-10R with 2015 WorldSBK rider Christophe Ponsson alongside French compatriot Jeremy Guarnoni, who won the last race of 2015 on a Yamaha YZF-R1.

On Wednesday, four WorldSBK teams will test at Jerez for the first time this week. At Aruba.it Ducati-Racing SBK Team, Davide Giugliano will attempt to make a much-anticipated return alongside Chaz Davies.

Xavi Fores will test his Panigale R under the Barni Racing Team banner for the first time, having signed up as the squad’s sole race rider for next year.

Also on-track in Andalucia will be the Honda World Superbike Team combination of Michael van der Mark and Nicky Hayden, plus Pata Yamaha World Superbike Team duo Sylvain Guintoli and Alex Lowes.