2012 World Superbike Prep

The second day of World Superbike testing at Portimao was a productive day for BMW Motorrad Motorsport's Leon Haslam as the Brit worked towards properly setting up the S1000RR.

The BMW pilot posted a quickest time of 1: 43.2, which was the top unofficial Thursday time. This was four-tenths of a second quicker than his Wednesday time, which was also the fastest out of all testers in Portimao for the opening day of WSBK testing.

But not far behind Haslam was newly-signed Alitalia Aprilia rider Eugene Laverty. The Northern Irishman trailed Haslam by a tenth of a second. But Laverty's best time wasn't achieved without incident. The RSV4 rider suffered a huge highside due to being distracted by another rider, but luckily walked away unharmed.

Another S1000RR followed with the third-fastest time, this one achieved by Ayrton Badovini. The BMW Motorrad Italia SBK rider posted a 1:43.4. Following Badovini was the other Alitalia Aprilia rider, Max Biaggi, who was four-tenths behind Wednesday's leader Haslam.

World Superbike reports that Chaz Davies (ParkinGO Aprilia) is also slotting in well on his second outing with the Italian four-cylinder machine, while Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) focussed more on set-up work than going for a quick time. Michel Fabrizio (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK) did the same, while Leon Camier's are rapidly tumbling as he cuts the gap to the top men on his Crescent Suzuki.

The Portimao testing will conclude Wednesday, the final day before the new testing ban goes into affect from Dec. 1 through Jan. 15.

Portimao World Superbike Test: Unofficial Day 2 Times:
1. Haslam (BMW) 1'43"2
2. Laverty (Aprilia) 1'43"3
3. Badovini (BMW) 1'43"4
4. Biaggi (Aprilia) 1'43"6
5. Davies (Aprilia) 1'44"2
6. Melandri (BMW) 1'44"3
7. Camier (Suzuki) 1'44"7
8. Fabrizio (BMW) 1'44"9
9. Seeley (Suzuki) 1'46"1