First day of testing at the Misano World Circuit "Marco Simoncelli" for the Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team, busy at their home circuit for the third round of the Supersport World Championship. The reigning World Champion team and its rider Steven Odendaal immediately obtained excellent results, with the second position in the combined standings, while gaining some important information ahead of the two-day race.
In this morning's FP1 the South African rider worked for the entire session on the same pair of tyres, clocking 18 laps. Steven's best time was 1'39"041, which put him in eighth position in the standings, behind several riders already dealing with their first time attacks of the weekend.
In the afternoon (16.00) was held FP2, characterized by a slight increase in temperature, where Odendaal started to show his great potential. After a first part of the session focused on the work in view of the race, in the final part of the session the South African has mounted for the first time the SCX tyre, managing to lower his best time of about four tenths, and obtaining the second place.
After a successful Friday, Odendaal and the Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team are ready for Saturday's Superpole (10.25) and Race 1 (15.15). Both sessions will be visible live on Sky Sport MotoGP, channel 208 of Sky.
FP1 + FP2 results #ITAWorldSBK
P1 - Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha) 1'38"473
P2 - Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team, Yamaha) +0.038
P3 - Dominique Aegerter (Yamaha) +0.123
P4 - Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta) +0.132
P5 - Roberto Mercandelli (Yamaha) +0.201
Steven Odendaal: "It was a pretty positive day. We didn't work particularly hard with the new tyre, as we concentrated on getting the most out of the other compounds, but once we had it on we immediately noticed the improvement. We need to fix a few small problems ahead of tomorrow, but we can certainly be confident. The team has started to work as always in the best way, and I hope tomorrow I can give him a podium in his home race".