Bautista tops opening day at Jerez

Alvaro Bautista set the pace during the first day of 2009 250cc testing, at Jerez on Monday, when the local star outpaced fellow former 125cc world champion Thomas Luthi by just over 0.3sec.

Third fastest behind the Aprilia one-two was Thai Honda rider Ratthapark Wilairot (+0.525sec), while former factory KTM rider Hiroshi Aoyama was a fraction slower in fourth on his debut for Team Scot Honda.

Another pair of 125cc world champions, Gabor Talmacsi (+1.1sec) and Mike di Meglio (+2.007sec), will be stepping up to the quarter-litre class in 2009, and the pair set the fifth and sixth fastest lap times on Monday.

Reigning 250cc world champion Marco Simoncelli was not present.

Jerez 250cc test - day one:

1. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 1min 44.351sec
2. Thomas Luthi Aprilia 1min 44.675sec
3. Ratthapark Wilairot Honda 1min 44.928sec
4. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda 1min 44.978sec
5. Gabor Talmacsi Aprilia 1min 45.361sec
6. Mike Di Meglio Aprilia 1min 46.358sec
7. Raffaele De Rosa Honda 1min 46.425sec
8. Lukas Pesek Aprilia 1min 46.500sec

Julian Simon led an Aspar Aprilia one-two during the first day of 2009 125cc testing at Jerez on Monday.

Simon lapped the Spanish Grand Prix circuit in a best time of 1min 48.875sec, almost half a second quicker than Smith, with Marc Marquez a fraction slower in third for KTM.

Sandro Cortese was almost two-seconds from Simon in fourth place for Derbi, with 2008 British Grand Prix winner Scott Redding a further 0.12sec back for Blusens Aprilia.

Biaggi and Nakano about the Portimao test

Biaggi: "I came here convinced that my times could be improved from the last test, but we have found several small and unexpected problems. We are not leaving Portimao cheerful but at least our technicians have recorded a lot of information that should be used to find solutions to our problems. In the last lap I had an ugly crash but I was lucky to only get some hematomas."

Nakano: “We expected big improvements on these three days but the unstable weather hasn't given a chance to test much, which added to my track unawareness has made everything more difficult. We have found some new and small problems in the bike, but we now have a good basis and the right direction to follow to improve and develop the RSV4"

Portimao test - Superpole simulation

Shane Byrne has made it a clean sweep of fastest times as the first World Superbike test of the 2009 season came to a close with a simulation of the new 'Superpole' format.

Adopting a Formula 1-style knockout system for 2009, organisers allowed the 20 fastest riders from yesterday's afternoon session to participate, eliminating the four slowest initially before splitting the group from 16 to the final eight. This method will be adopted for the remainder of the year.

British riders featured well, with Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam posting the third and fifth quickest times respectively, the pair being split by Max Neukirchner in second and Noriyuki Haga in fourth.

One lap specialist Troy Corser proved his qualifying skills transfer well to the new format as he hauled BMW into sixth position for easily their most convincing showing yet, while Yukio Kagayama and DFX's Regis Laconi also made an appearance in the mock 'shootout'

In addition, the flag-to-flag practice was included in the very last practice session of all three days, with riders coming in to change to their spare bikes when the signal was given, without any interruption of the simulated race session.

Previously, eight riders had been eliminated from the running, including the Hondas of Carlos Checa and Ryuichi Kiyonari, the Yamahas of Ben Spies and Tom Sykes, the Aprilias of Max Biaggi and Shinya Nakano, as well as Michel Fabrizio and Jakub Smrz.

Broc Parkes, David Salom, Alex Polita and Brendan Roberts were cut following the first session.

Biaggi finished 11th and Nakano 12th in the final rankings.

Day 2 at the Portimao WSBK test

Shane Byrne resumed his status as the rider to beat so far during day two of World Superbike testing at Portimao, the Brit breaking the lap record in the process.

With the circuit finally reaching a state with which to set representative lap times, Byrne, who skipped the damp morning session, went straight back to the top of the timesheets with a best lap of 1min 43.294secs – just under a tenth quicker than Troy Bayliss' lap record and also on Pirelli race rubber.

Shinya Nakano, meanwhile, got the better of Aprilia team-mate Max Biaggi, albeit down in 17th and 18th positions respectively, two seconds from the lead.

Full Results

First day of testing on Portimao

The first day of testing at the circuit of Portimao in Portugal has ended. It was a rainy day which didn't help the Aprilia team that don't have a lot of experience testing the RSV4 in the rain.

Both Max Biaggi and Shinya Nakano proving off the pace in 16th and 23rd, two and four seconds away from the leading pace as they continue to work on the bike's development.

Testing will continue over the next two days.

Bill will ride MX1 for Aprilia in 2009

Swiss rider Julien Bill has signed a long term contract with the Aprilia MX1 factory team; in the 2009 MX1 World Championship he will profit from the number one status.

After his last appearance on Honda two weeks ago in front of his home crowd at the Supercross of Geneva, Bill will entirely concentrate on his new task.

“The race in Geneva was very difficult for me. Due to a strong flu the week before Geneva, there I could not show my full potential. Furthermore I had to undertake a small surgery to get finally rid of a 5 year old injury,” the Swiss said.

“This intervention allows me to be again at 100% of my capacities. I am now very happy being able to focus entirely on my new bike.

“A two day test session in Italy has already been done and I am really surprised how well the bike behaved. The engine is really powerful and the general impression of the bike is good too. In order to improve it further on, we will work on the suspensions and we might change them but our aim is to surprise everybody by realising some really good results.

“Of course, there is still a huge work ahead of me but I am delighted to do a major part of this development. Apart from Aprilia I will be supported next year by Sinisalo, Tcx, Shoei, Scott and Agip."

At first I would like to state that Aprilia News is not dead! There is just absolutely no Aprilia news to be found these dark and cold days. News will pick up again at the end of January when Aprilia returns to testing the RSV4. In the meanwhile I found a cool picture gallery full of high res pics of the RSV4. With and without clothes. They come from the Aprilia Press database.

Go check out the pics here