Laverty lapped quickest on the final day of testing at Phillip Island on Thursday.

Factory Yamaha World Superbike rookie Eugene Laverty took advantage of a soft tyre and a dry window to edge out Max Biaggi and go quickest at the end of three days of testing at Phillip Island yesterday.

Laverty, who has looked impressive all the way in testing for his rookie WSBK season, recorded a time of 1:31.5 seconds around the Australian track to take the top slot.

“I’m pretty pleased with the test, it’s a nice way to go into the winter break,” Laverty said. “In the three days we got a lot of laps done, the second day especially was big breakthrough. So far we’ve had two one day tests so the second day here was where we really made the bike mine.

“The race times on the 2011 machine weren’t so far away from 2010 bike so we’re developing in the right direction. The new Ohlins front fork is definitely an improvement. I’m still learning this bike so we are fine tuning it as we go.”

The final day of testing saw rain in the morning, which interrupted proceedings for a couple of hours, but the track then was then dry until late in the afternoon when further rain brought an end to the tests for Yamaha and Aprilia.

Biaggi, quickest on the first two days of the test, did not have time to respond to Laverty’s mark and the Aprilia rider had to settle for second-best with a time of 1:32.1.

Leon Camier stayed third on the second Aprilia, just three-tenths off the pace of Biaggi at a 32.4, while Marco Melandri also recorded the same time for Yamaha.

The Italian took the opportunity to gain confidence with Pirelli’s rain tyres as well as run with some 2011-spec rubber.