SBK| Winter Test Jerez: Sykes still ahead of everyone

Today the Winter Tests taking place in Jerez de la Frontera were animated by many new entries: alongside Kawasaki, which faced the third day of testing with Tom Sykes, Aruba Racing Ducati took to the track with the official line up plus Michael Ruben Rinaldi, new European Superstock 1000 Champion, the Red Bull Honda WorldSbk Team where Leon Camier made his debut and the Pata Yamaha Team.

Jonathan Rea returned to the track after receiving the MBE, the highest honor of the British Empire, yesterday in London and together with Tom Sykes he dominated the day, despite a crash at turn 12 in the middle of the day, fortunately without consequences, but it was his teammate set the fastest lap of 1'38.735, which is also the new track record.
It is curious to note that MotoGP, with Andrea Iannone on the Suzuki GSX-RR, trailed WorldSbk by almost second, 1'38"280 against Sykes' best time.

For Leon Camier it was the first outing with the Fireblade CBR1000RR SP2: the English rider had a constant approach, completing 61 laps with his best time of 1'40.856.

Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri also arrived in Jerez and worked on the new rev limiter, with a view to 2018, covering a total of 120 laps with some difficulty, with the Welshman having a bad fall after just three laps.
Davies in fact went straight into the first corner, almost without indicating the trajectory, without managing to slow down the Panigale sufficiently, hitting the air fence to protect the barriers.
Red flags and session interrupted: the rescue personnel intervened and the x-ray checks came back negative, so Davies, who is very sore in his right knee, may be able to start riding again tomorrow, Thursday 23 November.

The Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team had three riders on track, in fact together with the two officials Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark there was also Niccolo Canepa.

Here is the time table for the third day:

1. Tom SYKES Laps: 69 1:38:735
2. Jonathan REA Laps: 71 1:39:050 +0.770
3. Marco MELANDRI Laps: 65 1:39:715 +1.435
4. Alex LOWES Laps: 70 1:39:715 +1.435
5. Xavi FORES Laps: 63 1:40:542 +2.262
6. Michael van der MARK Laps: 84 1:40:573 +2.293
7. Chaz DAVIES Laps: 64 1:40:630 +2.350
8. Leon CAMIER Laps: 61 1:40:856 +2.576
9. Niccolo CANEPA Laps: 68 1:41:294 +3.014
10. Michael RINALDI Laps: 67 1:41:374 +3.094