Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes set the quickest time on day one of World Superbike testing at Phillip Island and a led a clean sweep of British riders in the top four places with Kawasaki new boy Jonathan Rea running him a close second.
Lowes, who says he is riding with his head, not his heart this year, left it until the dying minutes to put in a 1’31.332 as his quickest lap on the ageing GSX-R1000, which is more than a second slower than Sylvain Guinolti’s 2014 pole of 1’30.038, with Rea just over three-tenths behind him. Leon Haslam put the Red Devils Aprilia in third, three one-hundredths further back with Tom Sykes fourth and just a tenth slower.
Former MotoGP man Randy De Puniet led the field for the first 74 minutes of the day before Haslam and former Sykes each took their turn at the top, but it was in the afternoon when the times really tumbled.
The Frenchman crashed at the high speed turn 11 in the closing minutes of the afternoon, sustaining bruising and took no further part in the day’s proceedings.
Rea ended the first two hours on track a fraction ahead of his team mate Sykes.
In the early minutes of the afternoon, Aruba Ducati’s Davide Giugliano crashed at the fast turn 11 and was unable to rejoin. When the circuit re-opened it was Sykes who produced a run of fast and consistent laps to close the gap on Rea before a flurry of riders set personal bests.
With two minutes to go, though, Lowes unleashed the fastest lap of the test so far to edge session one pace-setter Rea by 0.331s.
Haslam also improved late on, displacing Sykes who ended the ahead of the impressive Spanish rookie Jordi Torres andGiugliano whose time from the morning kept him in sixth. Sykes did however have the accolade of completing the most laps – 72 in total.
Chaz Davies on the second of the factory Ducati machine was seventh, De Puniet eighth, and reigning World Supersport Champion Michael van der Mark putting his Pata Honda in ninth.
Former 125cc World Champion Nico Terol rode his Althea Racing Ducati into tenth overall ahead of compatriot and 2014 Evo winner David Salom, who was 11th.
Leon Camier ended the day in 12th place on the MV Agusta but slashed his gap to the leaders from more than 2.7s early on to just 1.5s by the end of the day, which is promising for the former BSB champion.
Reigning World Champion Sylvain Guintoli eased into his title-defending season with 13th overall but the Frenchman is still suffering with a sore back after his whopping Jerez test get-off.
