Xaus tops day two of testing in Portimao

New Ten Kate Honda signing Ruben Xaus finished the second day of testing at Portimao at the top of the time sheets with an accomplished and convincing wet weather riding performance. The 32 year old Spaniard completed a massive 114 laps in fully wet conditions with a best time of 1m 55.8s.

It’s clear that Xaus has impressed his new team with his enthusiasm and commitment to understand his new bike. He also showed impressive discipline and control having posted his best lap time with a front tyre that had done 62 lap and a 30 lap old rear tyre.

Speaking to MCN, Xaus said:
“My feeling is good. I wanted to come here and do many laps without any big changes and that’s exactly what we did. On day one I changed nothing on the bike and today we have made some small adjustments. I’m really happy to be here – we’re learning a lot.”

Xaus’ teammate Jonathan Rea set the pace in the wet on day one, but elected not to ride today due to his wrist injury. Rea had a host of new parts to try on his Ten Kate Honda but could only properly evaluate them in dry conditions so he will now have to wait until January for his next test.

Leon Haslam ended a frustrating day with the second fastest time despite being plagued by electronic problems on his BMW S1000RR. Team-mate Troy Corser was third fastest one second further back with James Toseland and Noriyuki Haga both setting a 1.58.2.

For full insight into the test see MCN out Wednesday 8th December