This is the first time we’ve seen the brand-spanking new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R up against other motorcycles and the results, whilst not as blistering as perhaps people had thought or hoped, were encouraging.
Tom Sykes finished the better of the two riders and finished the testing session just 0.267 seconds from the leader.
Kawasaki say the team have found more ‘areas to exploit more fully next time out’.
Lascorz, not quite yet up to full fitness after his crash in 2010, finished tenth overall, although he opted out of riding in any session that were not fully wet or fully dry.
Tom Sykes: “Overall, not too bad in the dry. We were just two tenths off, which I am not saying is fantastic, but at the end of the day we were doing decent times. In the wet we still have some work to do, but it was still positive in the wet. Overall I am pleased with test if not the weather conditions, but we confirmed the general direction we have been going in with set-up, so we can now go to Phillip Island with more parts that will help us in a few areas. We will do the two official test days in Australia and then we go racing.”
Joan Lascorz: “I only wanted to ride in dry conditions so the first day was a good one to test in, and check how the bike and I were going. The bike was good and I was surprised that I was also good. Not 100% yet, but better. I worked well with Pere and we found a good dry set-up on the first day but I got held up by a couple of other riders when trying to improve my lap time. Looking at my ideal times I could have been about 0.6 seconds better. The Kawasaki team staff have been explaining very clearly to me where I can improve and I really appreciate that. In the wet I did not want to risk things too much, but we made some good laps when it was fully wet. I stopped when the track surface became inconsistent as I really is not want to risk a fall.”
