Leon Haslam made good use of his qualifying tyres to top the leaderboard at the end of a hectic three day test at Albacete, but his Spanish team-mate, Gregorio Lavilla was only a split second down, and was the faster of the two using race tyres on his Airwaves Ducati.

In common with the other teams bidding for honours in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, they have one remaining test session, at Snetterton this coming weekend, to ensure that their machines are finely tuned for the seasonal opener at Brands Hatch on Easter Monday, 9 April.

Haslam, who put in a hard working 241 laps of the Spanish circuit, is gunning for the crown, having finished last term as runner-up, and his preparations, despite a tumble, are progressing well: “I'm really happy and was quickest in every session until I crashed. I was not hurt in the incident but it cost valuable time as I planned to do some race runs but was not able to. On the whole it was a good test.”

His best lap came as he used a Dunlop qualifying tyre, setting a time of 1m 29.85secs, eclipsing Lavilla by a tenth of a second, but, the former champion, who had completed his testing scheduled inside two days put in a best lap of 1m 30.12secs using a race tyre, half a second up on Haslam. Lavilla also took some 4.6 seconds off a race simulation run compared to the time he recorded in a similar test prior to the start of last season.

Chris Walker, returning to domestic action after a sortie into the World Championship, set third best time, also using a qualifier in his Rizla Suzuki, recording a lap of the 2.19 mile circuit in 1m 30.070secs. The Nottinghamshire rider commented: “We have learned a huge amount about what affects our bike, what works and what doesn't. If we apply what we have learned here, then we will be quicker next time we are on track and that has always been my aim.”

His team-mate, British Supersport Champion Cal Crutchlow, was again impressive aboard the powerful GSX R1000, with a best time of 1m 30.768secs: “It's been another very good positive test and I have proved that I can run up front with the best riders in British Superbikes.”

Karl Harris, riding the Hydrex Honda, set the fifth best time, lapping in 1m 30.778secs, while Michael Rutter rode hard on the fast developing MSS Discovery Kawasaki, with a best lap in 1m 31.635secs.

ends