Jonathan Rea put a smile on Castrol Honda's face today as he led the opening testing session from start to finish. Rea finished the opening session with a best time of 1'44.055. But Rea and Honda weren't the only ones in the 1'44 range.
The top five riders were all aboard different machines from different manufacturers. Honda, Aprilia, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Ducati all had riders hanging close to Rea. Jakub Smrz was the closest, riding his Ducati for the Effenbert Liberty team just .05 seconds behind Rea's pace.
2010 champion Max Biaggi was the next across the line. Biaggi and his Aprilia finished 3 tenths behind the Castrol Honda rider. Michel Fabrizio, Suzuki, and Tom Sykes, Kawasaki, completed the top 5.
The first testing session of the World Superbike season showed that the competition will be spread across the board. All the manufacturers have a rider that is capable of taking race wins. Yamaha was the only manufacturer to finish more than a second off of the leader's pace. Eugene Laverty was the quickest for Yamaha. The World Superbike rookie finished 14th, but will likely improve throughout the testing session.
The BMW team was absent from the session. Leon Haslam and Troy Corser will join the World Superbike testing session in Australia.
