Carlos Checa gave the clearest hint yet that the new Ducati 1199 Panigale will be a competitive force from its World Superbike debut after concluding the pre-season test at Phillip Island with the fastest time.

Showing few ill-effects from the virus that kept him out of testing action last week, 2011 champion Checa opened the final day of testing with the quickest time in the weather-hampered morning session before going on to set the pace again in the warmer afternoon session.

Lapping in a best time of 1min 31.059secs, Checa – winner of four of the last five races to be held at Phillip Island - was two tenths quicker than day one front runner Leon Camier, the Spaniard's impressive form sending a warning shot to his rivals who may have expected the 1199 to be further down the order at this early stage.

Even so, the field remains remarkably close with just six tenths covering the top ten riders after two days of action, while the six manufacturers would occupy the top six positions too.

Behind Checa, Marco Melandri was second fastest on the BMW, while Camier's lap time from day one was still good enough to leave the Suzuki rider third in the overall order.

Having maintained a fairly low profile in the wake of his wrist injury, Kawasaki's Tom Sykes made advances towards the head of the leaderboard as he ended the test in fourth place, while Michel Fabrizio and Jonathan Rea headed up the Aprilia and Honda charges in fifth and sixth.

Leon Haslam backed up his Pata Honda team-mate in seventh place, ahead of Eugene Laverty on the best of the factory Aprilias and Althea Racing's Davide Giugliano, who was one of two riders to suffer a fall during the session.

The other was the already-injured Jules Cluzel, who suffered another set-back with a red flag-inducing tumble less than an hour into the session. Despite failing to return to the track, the Superbike rookie was still a creditable 11th quickest on the overall timesheets, just behind countryman Sylvain Guintoli.


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