Crutchlow set the pace in Italy during testing this week.

Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow has set the fastest lap during a two day test at Imola this week, teams heading straight from last weekend’s Misano’s race to the historic Italian venue.

Yamaha Sterilgarda’s Crutchlow was in dazzling form in the final session of testing at Imola, posting the fastest time of 1:47.478 to beat the previous track best from last year’s race. The English rider used a race tyre to set his best time.

The next three riders who were fastest over the two days of the tests had to rely on earlier lap times to take their places in the final rankings, with Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) second, on a 1:47.854 that he set on the final morning.

“I’m happy with result of the test but we’ve got to win the races as well,” Crutchlow commented. “We’ve tried a lot of different settings here, finally the best are close to how we started at the beginning.

“Hopefully over the summer break we’ll get some new parts and make more of a difference. We’re going to Brno with good confidence and we’ll take away from this test some good positives.”

Leon Haslam (Alstare Suzuki) had two big crashes today, the second a collision with his fellow Briton Shane Byrne (Althea Ducati), with Shane cutting his hand and suffering a suspected broken second metacarpal bone. Haslam was still third fastest overall, but was reliant on his day one best time.

Jonathan Rea was faster today than yesterday on his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR, and the last rider with a time inside the 1:47s.

A somewhat rejuvenated Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) was fifth, heading off third place rider in the overall championship standings, Carlos Checa (Althea Ducati). Ruben Xaus was fast in the morning session, going seventh overall in the standings, but stopping early to rest the leg he hurt in a collision with another rider at Misano on Sunday.

Before his late session fall, Byrne had done enough to secure eighth place, one up on championship leader Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia). Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) rounded out a top ten of great variety, with all seven competing manufacturers represented.

Queenslander Chris Vermeulen continued development of his factory Kawasaki ZX-10R.

“We have gone through some of the parts that have been introduced through the year and this is the first chance I have been able to do something on the bike, without being under the pressure of race weekend, since my accident,” the former series runner-up said.

“Conditions were pretty extreme so we were trying to get as much good information as we could. Consistently we are a lot closer to the front, so that is very positive. The new tyres that Pirelli brought have been good. We did not run a qualifier at these tests because that is only to get a number on a time sheet.”

In the Supersport division, which was scheduled alongside the Superbikes for two days, Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) was the fastest, with a 1:51.572 lap.