World Superbike Testing Begins At Jerez

Members of the World Superbike series gathered in Jerez, Spain, to undergo the final round of winter testing. Riders had ideal weather conditions on the motorsports track, with the the Kawasaki and Aprilia teams dominating testing.

Kawasaki's Tom Sykes had the fastest time of the day and was almost a full second faster than the closest competitor, MotoMatters reports. Behind him were Aprilia teammates Michel Fabrizio and Eugene Laverty, who were separated by only five hundredths of a second. Sykes' teammate Loris Baz took the fourth spot. None of the Kawasaki times are official, however, as the team did not mount a transponder on its bikes.

"This will be the last test of the 2012 winter season," Guim Roda, Kawasaki's team manager, told Yahoo! Eurosport. "Kawasaki and all in the time are working so hard to improve a bike that took second in the WSBK championship, just 0.5 points behind Max Biaggi...Tom is also working hard to start on an even better level than he finished this year, which will also not be easy."

After this round of testing is complete on November 28, World Superbike will face six weeks of winter break from December 31 to mid-January.