Rapid Solicitor’s Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne ended the first day of official MCE British Superbike testing at the top of the Almeria tree today with James Ellison in second and Stuart Easton third.

The three-time champion set a fastest lap of 1’37.544 compared to Ellison who was 1.8s behind. Easton lapped a further two-tenths slower than his Rapid Solicitors team-mate while Dan Linfoot, on the Quattro Kawasaki, was only fractions behind the Scotsman.

Chris Walker, fresh from setting his personal best time at Cartagena, was fifth, on the same time as Linfoot while Martin Jessopp was a further half a second back. Howie Mainwaring Smart ended two-tenths behind Jessopp.

For comparison, Kawasaki claimed a 1'34 flat for Tom Sykes on race tyres in January pre-season WSBK testing at the same circuit.