The first of two February testing sessions concluded at the Australian circuit of Phillip Island with extremely positive results for the Althea Racing team.

Carlos Checa, 2011 World Champion, recorded the fastest overall times while ‘new- entry’ Davide Giugliano made consistent progress throughout the three-day test.

On day one of testing, Carlos Checa immediately set the bar, recording some of the fastest times of the session.

Although Carlos sat out the morning’s session as a result of illness. The Spaniard and his technicians were able to complete a large part of the planned work and Checa was pleased to find a good solution as far as front suspension is concerned.

The times of most riders dropped throughout the day but it was Carlos out in front once more, with a best time of 1m32.1.

On the final day of testing, on a track even hotter than yesterday, Checa was pleased to be able to repeat his performance from the past days, putting in a 1m31.8, the fastest lap of the whole session.

“We lost time yesterday because I was unwell; I stayed in bed for most of the morning and only went out on track from about 2.30pm. Despite that setback, we still got most of the work done luckily.” said Checa.

“Today was even hotter and we tried different things but it seems hard to make further improvements when we already feel like we’re at the limit.”

“We started the season well here last year so we’ve compared last year’s set-up to this year’s, considering the extra 6kg, and we understand the direction to take.”

“We’ll continue with the work on Monday, concentrating mainly on the tyres and their behavior in these hot conditions but for now I can say I’m satisfied.”