Carlos Checa [Althea Racing] held off the charge of his old rivals Max Biaggi and Marco Melandri in today’s two official test sessions at Phillip Island.

In the warmer afternoon track conditions the world champion was unable to improve on his best time of 1’31”947 set in the morning, finding he had reached a plateau in terms of pure pace.

“We have reached a limit in this track in testing and it seems we are in the same limit, 1’31.8 to 1’31.9,” said Checa.

“We are trying different things, moving the bike, suspension and electronics and some things are better in one area then worse in another but the lap times are basically the same.”

“It is not frustrating because we are working well and getting some good conclusions but I felt the track conditions today meant that everyone was struggling to improve lap times.”

“I used both the wide and narrow Pirelli tyres and there is some difference between them, but we are still not clear which one can be the best.”

One more day of official testing remains before the start of the first race weekend of the season.