Team Suzuki
Alstare news
2010
Superbike World Championship
Infront
Motor Sports tests, Phillip Island,
Australia
Monday 22nd
February
Circuit:
4.445 kms.
Weather
conditions: Rain before practice, then
dry, sunny/cloudy 24-27 C
LEON AND
SYLVAIN END TEST WITH 7TH AND 15TH.
Team Suzuki
Alstare riders Leon Haslam and Sylvain
Guintoli continued to work on finding
the best set-up for their GSX-R 1000 K10
Suzukis instead of chasing lap times and
ended the two day test 7th and 15th
respectively. Strong winds buffeted the
4.445 kilometre circuit today and most
riders took things cautiously,
especially in the afternoon. Ducatis
filled the top four places at the
finish, with Michel Fabrizio the
fastest, with a time of 1:31.650. Second
was Shane Byrne, with Jakub Smrz third
and Carlos Checa fourth.
Leon:
142 laps (two days) 7th, 1:32.279
I am not so
happy with the final result, regarding
lap times, but overall I am happy with
all the work we’ve done and the things
we found out and this will help us go in
the right direction.
Today we
started with the two bikes set up
differently and I preferred some things
on one bike and some things on the other
bike, so the mechanics will now try and
put the best bits of both on one bike
and that’s what I will start with during
first practice next Friday. We spent
quite a lot of time today trying out
race tyres, so that we will be in a good
position next week, but that meant that
we didn’t really go for a very quick lap
time.
I am not
worried about the guys ahead of me
today, because I know that things will
be very different come the race next
weekend. That’s more important than lap
times today. I feel good about our
prospects - and that’s the main thing.
Sylvain:
147 laps (two days) 15th, 1:32.869
Today we
did a lot of work on getting the bike
working well with race rubber and didn’t
concentrate of chasing lap times. I had
a small get-off at the tight hairpin
after Lukey Heights, but there was no
damage to me or the bike. It happened
when I lost the front end when I pushed
a bit too hard on a tyre that I didn’t
really like - and now I like it less!
I have had
no problems with jet-lag or tiredness
today, but I felt that I just couldn’t
find my good rhythm. This sometimes
happens to me when we test for a lot of
time, like today when the two sessions
lasted two and a half hours each. In a
normal race weekend, practice lasts an
hour and race is about forty-five
minutes and I always manage to find a
good rhythm without a problem, so maybe
the sessions today were a bit too long
for me. But, we’ve done a lot of good
work and now I am looking forward to
next Friday and the start of the race
weekend.
Overall results (two days)
1 Fabrizio
(ITA-Ducati) 1:31.650, 2 Byrne (GBR-Ducati)
1:31.652, 3 Smrz (CZE-Ducati) 1:31.680,
4 Checa (ESP-Ducati) 1:31.959, 5 Rea (GBR-Honda)
1:32.175, 6 Haga (JPN-Ducati) 1:32.247,
7 Leon Haslam (GBR-Suzuki Alstare)
1:32.279, 15 Sylvain Guintoli (FRA-Suzuki
Alstare) 1:32.869,
ends
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