Reigning World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea topped the final day of pre-season testing at Jerez, while Kawasaki teammate Alex Lowes crashed.
Rea did not complete any running in the wet conditions on Wednesday, and was set to abandon plans to ride on Thursday, with Kawasaki heading to Barcelona next week for a private outing.
However, the five-time WSBK title winner ventured out onto the Jerez circuit early in the afternoon, with the track having dried sufficiently enough by then to warrant use of slick tyres.
He immediately shot up to third in the standings, before taking over top spot just after 3pm local time with a 1m40.983s.
Rea – who topped November’s Jerez test – would go unchallenged as the session wound down, with intermittently iffy weather conditions curtailing running for most later in the day.
Former Kawasaki stablemate Toprak Razgatlioglu spent a lot of the day occupying top spot aboard his Yamaha.
An effort of 1m41.214s was good enough for first for some time, before he was eventually deposed by Rea.
Reigning British Superbike champion Scott Redding was once again top Ducati runner in third, with Lowes – who led the session briefly – fourth after his crash at Turn 9 in the afternoon.
Michael van der Mark trailed his former Yamaha teammate by over a second in sixth spot, with Wednesday pacesetter Leon Haslam sixth with a 1m42.797s on the leading Honda.
Loris Baz (Ten Kate) headed the sister works Honda of Alvaro Bautista, with Barni Racing outcast Michael Ruben Rinaldi ninth as he continues to gel with the GoEleven outfit.
GRT rookie Federico Caricasulo also crashed on Thursday, and rounded out the top 10 – after returning to the track late on for some wet running – ahead of BMW’s Tom Sykes.
The majority of teams will head to Portimao for two further days of testing on Sunday and Monday – though KRT will be absent, and will instead carry out some running following a filming day at Catalunya on Monday.
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