Former MotoGP rider Nico Canepa made his debut for the Pata Yamaha World Superbike team at the Misano test and spent his time using a development-spec engine at the Italian circuit.

Canepa, who stood in for the injured Sylvain Guintoli, had a day and a half on the bike as it rained yesterday afternoon and also worked on new parts and a full array of different settings components and configurations with positive results.

Alex Lowes is still nursing his injured shoulder but did ride, primarily doing short runs to focus on electronic settings.

“I am really happy with the test and I want to say thank you to Yamaha for this opportunity. I tested many things to continue the bike’s development and we had a lot of good feedback. Usually it is not easy to switch from a Stock to a Superbike but the YZF-R1 is very easy and I felt comfortable from the first lap,” said Canepa.

“It’s a shame that it started to rain in the afternoon but it was good for the team to also be able to test in the wet conditions. I hope that the new improvements found will help Lowes and Guintoli to be fast in Misano for the next Superbike round in a few weeks.”