Image: Russell Colvin.

Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes was fastest across the two days of World Superbike testing with a 1m31.097s set in Monday’s cooler afternoon termperatures, with teammate and current world champion Jonathan Rea second quickest.

The next nine riders on the timesheets were all well within a second of Sykes, as this year’s WorldSBK season shapes up as a battle royal.

Davide Giugliano (Ducati) was third followed by Honda’s Michael van der Mark, Sylvain Guintoli (Yamaha), Jordi Torres (BMW Motorrad), Nicky Hayden (Honda), Alex Lowes (Yamaha), Xavi Fores (Ducati), Chaz Davies (Ducati) and German Marcus Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad).

At the end of the final session, Guintoli was the fastest man on track despite a crash earlier in the session on his YZF-R1. The 2014 WorldSBK champion led Rea by a tenth and a half, with Lowes registering the third best time of the afternoon.

Australia’s young gun, Taree’s Josh Hook, is unlikely to race at the opening round of the 2016 Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island after dislocating his left shoulder and suffering a small break in testing this afternoon.

In sweltering afternoon heat, Hook crashed his Kawasaki at turn two and was transported to the circuit medical centre where he was declared unfit to race — a sour start to his rookie WorldSBK season.

However, the determined Hook, keen to make his debut for his new Grillini Kawasaki team, plans to see a specialist in Melbourne tomorrow.

Hook will still need clearance from the circuit’s chief medical officer later in the week to be allowed to compete in the weekend’s two 22-lap races.

Hook was 20th fastest in today’s sessions, while the other Australians in the international field, Josh Brookes (BMW Motorrad) and wildcard Mike Jones (Ducati) completed the two-day test at Phillip Island in positions 15th and 16th respectively.

Italian Fabio Menghi crashed his Ducati in today’s morning session and was transported to Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital by air ambulance. He has a fracture to his left pelvis and is out for the season-opener.

The majority of riders set their best lap times in the cooler day one conditions, with the ambient temperature climbing well into the 30s today.

The WorldSBK riders will now take two days off before round one kicks off on Friday. The 22-lap WorldSBK races will be held at 3:00pm on Saturday and Sunday, and the world supersport race starts at 1:30pm on Sunday.

Kenan Sofuoglu has laid down another marker in the second and final WorldSSP test session ahead of the first round of the season.

Setting his fastest lap in the final session, the Turkish rider managed a 1m33.786s, keeping himself 0.669 seconds clear of nearest challenger Lorenzo Zanetti.

The third fastest in the final session was Sofuoglu´s teammate Randy Krummenacher, who was fastest on day one, ahead of Wahr and Baldolini. Jules Cluzel, although finishing the day in third on the combined times, ended FP2 in eighth position.

Best Australian local was Anthony West in 11th, Aiden Wagner 13th, Glenn Scott 21st, Mitch Levy 22nd, Alex Phillis 24th, Kane Burns 25th and Lachlan Epis 27th.

For information on this weekend’s opening round of the 2016 Motul FIM Superbike World Championship, Yamaha Finance round, at Phillip Island GP circuit go to www.worldsbk.com.au. Tickets on sale via www.ticketek.com.au until Wednesday, 24 February at 4:00pm and then at gate.

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