Yes, we know it's only winter tyre testing and we know the bikes will be developed in the winter and blah fucking blah. We're suffering from withdrawal symptoms already and we need a race-track fix so for the time being the first Pirelli tyre test at Valencia is going to have to suffice.
Our mole at trackside gave us the lowdown and dirty on the day's proceedings. Fastest of the bunch (times from Pirelli) was Lorenzo Lanzi, the new kid on the Xerox Ducati with a 1-35.7 but he was chased home by battle-scarred Troy Bayliss, making his return to WSB after three years in MotoGP. Bayliss, who smashed his left wrist in a dirt bike training accident, hadn't been on a race track for a while (or Pirelli tyres or a Ducati twin) but he was second fastest with a 1-36.1. We hear too that Bayliss had a bit of training accident when out on his 'pushie'. A car knocked him off, but thankfully didn't fuck his wrist the x-ray of which, we are reliably informed, looks like a six screws all held together with wires and rings. Well, it's not holding him back too much.
Other times? Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki) 1-36.3; Nori Haga (Yamaha) 1-36.6; Karl Muggeridge (Ten Kate Honda) 1-36.9; Chris Walker (PSG Kawasaki) 1-37.0; Andrew Pitt (Yamaha) 1-37.2, James Toseland (Ten Kate) 1-37.5; Regis Laconi (PSG Kawasaki) 1-39.7 and Craig Jones, on his first outing on the Petronas FP1 1-41.2. In the supersport practice Sebastian Charpentier (who missed the last two races) showed everyone the way to go with a 1-38.2. Place your bets...