Checa and Foret dominate session 1 of the SBK test in Australia

Today the action of the World Superbike and Supersport Championship has started at Phillip Island Circuit, where the first round of the 2012 season will be held next Sunday, so the championship kicks off with this official test ahead of the first race.

The first session for the Supersport riders has been dominated by Fabien Foret. The Frenchman set a lap time of 1:35.140, the best of the 27 riders who took to the track for this first part of the official test at the Australian circuit, while Kenan Sofuoglu finished just over two tenths behind Foret’s time and was the strongest rider of the session for many minutes.

Completing the top 5 were Broc Parkes more than seven tenths behind the Frenchman, followed by Balazs Nemeth in fifth place, already above 1:36, so far from the fastest rider today at Phillip Island.

A good start for the riders. Now they have to wait for the second session and keep working tomorrow, so it’s time to get ready for the Supersport session 2.

Below are the times from Supersport session 1:

Fabien Foret FRA Intermoto Step Kawasaki ZX-6R 1m 35.140s
Kenan Sofuoglu TUR Kawasaki DeltaFin ZX-6R 1m 35.377s
Broc Parkes AUS Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR 1m 35.897s
Balazs Nemeth HUN Team Toth Honda CBR600RR 1m 36.652s
Lukas Pesek CZE ProRace Honda CBR600RR 1m 36.784s
Jules Cluzel FRA PTR Honda CBR600RR 1m 37.048s
Vittorio Iannuzzo ITA Suriano Triumph Daytona 675 1m 37.102s
Alex Baldolini ITA Suriano Triumph Daytona 675 1m 37.172s
Sam Lowes GBR Bogdanka PTR Honda CBR600RR 1m 37.405s
Massimo Roccoli ITA Bike Service WTR Yamaha YZF-R6 1m 37.520s
Mathew Scholtz RSA Bogdanka PTR Honda CBR600RR 1m 37.766s
Pawel Szkopek POL Bogdanka Honda CBR600RR 1m 37.848s
Ronan Quarmby RSA PTR Honda CBR600RR 1m 38.180s
Ondrej Jezek CZE SMS Honda CBR600RR 1m 38.206s
Roberto Tamburini ITA Lorini Honda CBR600RR 1m 38.443s
Imre Toth HUN Team Toth Honda CBR600RR 1m 38.538s
Sheridan Morais RSA Kawasaki DeltaFin ZX-6R 1m 38.689s
Luca Marconi ITA VFT Yamaha YZF-R6 1m 38.993s
Martin Jessopp GBR Riders PTR Honda CBR600RR 1m 39.284s
Romain Lanusse FRA Intermoto Step Kawasaki ZX-6R 1m 39.481s
Vladimir Leonov RUS Yakhnich Yamaha YZF-R6 1m 39.526s
Andrea Antonelli ITA Lorini Honda CBR600RR 1m 39.536s
Dino Lombardi ITA PATA by Martini Yamaha YZF-R6 1m 39.835s
Joshua Day USA GoEleven Kawasaki ZX-6R 1m 40.457s
Fabio Menghi ITA VFT Yamaha YZF-R6 1m 40.911s
Thomas Caiani SUI Kuja Honda CBR600RR 1m 41.319s
Yves Polzer AUT MRC Austria Yamaha YZF-R6 1m 41.913s

As for the World Superbike Championship, they went out after Supersport, and it quickly became clear who would dominate. Carlos Checa was the only one to get down to 1:31, so he is making it clear that he is going to defend his 2011 championship crown tooth and nail.

SBK session 1 was controlled by the 7 almost from the start, setting a 1:31.947 and working lap by lap, more than 30 laps with his Ducati 1098R at the Australian track, so everything is ready for next Sunday. For his part, second place went to Max Biaggi, almost two tenths behind the Spaniard’s time. A bit further back was Jonathan Rea, who is showing strength at the start of the season, setting a time of 1:32.381, nearly half a second behind the 7.

Completing the top 5 were Haslam 4th and Sykes 5th, while the rest of our riders were 9th Joan Lascorz, already over 1:33, and David Salom was 14th, so little by little but with good form, especially for the Mallorcan, who must still be suffering from his fall in last week’s private test.

The negative part of this session was the crash of Leon Haslam. The 91 crashed at turn 12 and may have hurt an ankle, although this is not yet confirmed, but it is certainly very bad luck for the rider who was one of the strongest in this test. The accident also forced a red flag for a few minutes, so it must have been a very hard hit. Staring also went down at turn 4 of the Australian track, but it was nothing serious for the Kawasaki rider.

We will update the full Superbike times as they come in. For now, here is the top 10 from this first official SBK test session at Phillip Island.