Source: Supplied.

The sun was shining at Jerez on Wednesday morning, making day three the most anticipated day of testing for WorldSBK teams so far. For the first time this week Aruba.it Racing – Ducati, Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team and MV Agusta were out on track, marking the beginning of their test schedule in Spain.

Grillini Racing Team’s Ondrej Jezek and Ayrton Badovini together with Honda WorldSBK Team’s Stefan Bradl and Althea BMW Racing Team’s Jordi Torres and Markus Reiterberger weren’t around to enjoy the good weather as they finished their testing programs yesterday.

The stars of WorldSBK were joined by MotoGP teams Avintia Racing, Pull & Bear Aspar Team, Team Suzuki ECSTAR, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, HRC Honda, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini and the Ducati Team.

Kawasaki Racing Team used the day to catch up on lost track time from Monday and continued testing tyres and the new rear shock on Jonathan Rea’s ZX-10RR, while completing a race simulation in the afternoon.

The Northern Irishman was once again the fastest WorldSBK rider on the Spanish circuit today, clocking a time of 1m39.739s, setting the bar high ahead of his second title-defence campaign next year. Tom Sykes continued to work on his riding style as he has done since the Aragon test.

The Yorkshireman has a lot of new changes to adapt to not only on the 2017 Ninja, but with new rule changes coming into effect next year that will see smaller batteries be a requirement and the abolishment of split throttle bodies. Sykes did back to back comparisons over the day with the 2016 spec battery and the new smaller one he will use next year.

Over in the Milwaukee Aprilia World Superbike team garage, Eugene Laverty focused the day’s energies into testing two different engines as well as chassis flexibility. His teammate Lorenzo Savadori worked on new rear shocks and front forks and brakes, with the rest of his RSV4 options remaining the same from day two.

Aruba.it Racing – Ducati’s Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri put in some solid laps today, as they tested a new swing-arm that Ducati have developed as well as suspension setup, new electronics and new forks by Ohlins that will be on their 2017 bikes.

The duo have a lot of work to do for the remainder of the week as they plan to do back to back comparisons with the 2016 forks. With timing available today, Davies clocked in times just 0.4 seconds behind WorldSBK leader Rea.

Pata Yamaha were also out on track with their YZF R1s looking completely different to their last on-track outing in Aragon. At a first glance it seemed the bikes were sporting new tanks, swing-arms and seat units however, Alex Lowes confirmed there were numerous new parts that the team would be evaluating throughout the rest of the week, but didn’t reveal what exactly they were.

Leon Camier headed development on the MV Agusta today, focusing mainly on electronics and the 2017 spec throttle. The team spent the day adapting the bike to 2017 regulations and testing will continue on Thursday.