The main headline from the final private European test concerned defending champion Sylvain Guintoli who crashed on his third flying lap of day one. The Frenchman was ruled out of the remainder of the test as he returned to England for treatment, leaving Supersport champion Michael van der Mark to go it alone for PATA Honda.
Typically, Giugliano wasn’t too far away from the gravel traps and suffered a crash of his own on day two, although that didn’t stop him returning in the final hour to set a 1:39.332, three tenths quicker than Sykes and almost a second underneath Loris Baz’s 2014 pole time.
The head-to-head battle between Kawasaki’s British teammates looks set to be one of the stories of 2015 and Rea had drawn first blood by topping the timesheets on day one, leading Sykes by less than a tenth, but by the end of Tuesday’s proceedings, Tom had turned the tables to finish second overall.
Davies had a spill of his own on his way to fourth, seven tenths shy of his teammate, while Leon Haslam took fifth aboard his Red Devils Roma Aprilia. Alex Lowes shone on Monday to go second before falling to sixth, just ahead of leading rookies Michael van der Mark, Nicolas Terol and Randy de Puniet.
Testing will resume in Phillip Island on February 16-17, just days ahead of the season’s curtain-raiser on February 22.
