World Superbikes rolls into Lausitzring for the first time since 2007 this weekend with first practice kicking off tomorrow morning. The track could well throw up some interesting things to argue about in the pub, including:

Chaz Davies should have a clear advantage over the Kawasaki riders for at least first practice as the Aruba Ducati man tested there with his full team and race bike…

…Whereas Jonathan Rea vanned his own ZX-10R to the German track while Tom Sykes only got laps on a road bike

Sylvain Guintoli will see if his leg will hold up for a full race weekend as the Frenchman has only tested twice since his big Imola crash. The bumpy surface may prove a test for the likeable Pata Yamaha man

Alex Lowes will do his first race weekend after spending two weekends on a Monster Yamaha M1. The Derby rider has already said the experience has allowed him to be more precise with feedback to his crew so we should see a drop in laptimes between practices tomorrow

Leon Camier was at the same test as old mate Davies and said that he was only a couple of tenths off the works Ducati man and is confident he can put in a decent performance over race distance on the overweight and underpowered MV Agusta after doing some electronics work

Josh Brookes and Karel Abraham did not test at the track, so they can expect another tough weekend on the Milwaukee BMWs but the Australian is the only rider in the field to have raced there before on a WSBK machine.

Lausitz is a car track through and through, with all riders reporting a lot of bumps, especially peeling off the oval and on to the infield. There are also some surprisingly-late apexes to be made or missed…

Manufacturers’ Lausitz history

Aprilia hasn’t yet raced with their new bike- the RSV4- at the Lausitzring: their only weekends at the German track were in 2001 and 2002, when they fielded the bicylindrical RSV1000. Their best result came in 2002, when Noriyuki Haga was fourth and fifth at the Lausitzring. The year before Troy Corser was able to take Aprilia to the front row, qualifying in second.

BMW and MV Agusta have yet to race at the Lausitzring.

Ducati has been the most successful manufacturer at the Lausitzring, with five wins: four by Troy Bayliss and one by Lorenzo Lanzi. Ducati has recorded 10 podiums here - at least one for each Lausitzring race weekend.

Honda is second only to Ducati in terms of wins at the German track. They’ve had three recorded wins with three different riders in three different years: Colin Edwards in 2001, Chris Vermeulen in 2005 and James Toseland in 2006.

Kawasaki will look to improve their Lausitzring record this weekend, as their best result here so far is a fourth by Hitoyasu Izutsu in Race 2 in 2001. The Japanese manufacturer recorded a 1-2 in qualifying here in 2007 with Fonsi Nieto and Regis Laconi.

MV Agusta will race for the first time at the Lausitzring in the WSBK championship.

Yamaha won at the last Lausitzring weekend back in 2007, when in Race 1 Noriyuki Haga climbed to the top step of the podium, while his teammate Troy Corser was third. In Race 2 Haga was again on the podium in second.